We all agree that the apartheid education system existing in 1954, and for years afterwards, was appalling and disgraceful and resulted in black children being condemned to third rate educations. And we all agree that the Brown decision rightly struck down legally mandated apartheid in education. Nonetheless, the sweeping claim that Brown (arguably) makes that black kids cannot get an education equal to whites in 2007 unless they are sitting next to white kids is, IMO, patently ridiculous. I suspect that members of other minorities, like immigrant Asian Americans (who often have the additional impediment of first learning English), excel regardless of class composition. What does the “data” say about the educational achievement of Asian American kids? Must they also sit next to kids of European descent in order to excel?

Legal opinions often say a lot of things that are outside of the holding of the case. Thus, first year law students are taught to distinguish the holding, or rule of law, in the case from the “dictum.” As I recall, the segregation of which the plaintiffs complained in Brown was segregation of the schools by law, not de facto segregation arising from the racial composition of neighborhoods. What caused black kids psychological harm was the fact that they were not allowed to sit in the same classrooms as whites by law, the clear implication of the law being that they were inferior beings. By ordinary legal reasoning, the holding of the case would be that de jure segregation is a violation of equal protection, notwithstanding the broad and sweeping statements in the opinion. I suspect that most of the justices read the word “segregation” in the opinion to mean “de jure segregation.” At least one of them, according to Rehnquist years later, initially wanted to affirm the “separate but equal” doctrine in Plessy. Would he have signed onto an opinion that outlawed largely single race schools arising solely by the accident of the racial composition of a particular neighborhood? I doubt it.

It strikes me as extremely insulting to suggest that black kids must be seated next to white kids before they can excel in learning, as if something has to “rub off” the white kids. What is it that has to rub off, degsme?

Lastly, with regard to your dismissive comments about Thomas, can any black person succeed without “Affirmative Action and active protection by the legal system” in your view?