Brown versus Board of Education - Essay Example

Topic: The concept of the separate but equal stared in the era of the Jim Crow rules. The common opinion of the time was that the people were not any different but they needed to keep to themselves. The doctrine of equality in separate places was advanced as a means of reducing the interaction between the members of the different races (Case 205). The rules sought to bundle the people together into two major groups that it the whites and the coloreds. The approach of labeling the people according to their races was prohibited in the public places. However, the amendment states that the private owners had the right to decide on the races that were going to enter their places. The private places were defined as the areas such as the private means of transport and lodgings. The approach to the issue that the government adopted was indicative of the unwillingness of to intervene. The government claimed that the act of discriminating the entrance of the people into the areas was wrong. However, the wrongs were committed in a private capacity and there was nothing that the government could do to correct the trend. The famous case between Brown v. Board of education (1954) was the main cause of the changes that are manifested in the American learning arena today. The desegregation of the education system stemmed from the determination made on the case. However, the very act of desegregating the public learning system has led to the development of major issues in the current times that beg the question of how effective the recommendations were. The paper will also address the issue of the possible recurrence of segregation in the education sector and the stands of the major players in the society and the political arenas on the possibility. As the paper postulated earlier, there are chances that the recommendations that arose after the determination of the case between Brown v. Board of Education did not work well. The recommendations sought to eradicate the whole issue of discrimination that was evident in the early 20th century (Case 205). Various research conducted in the area have indicated that the people are leaning more towards the trend that was evident in the 1960. The schools have a majority of the students being the minority races and a few students are well. This means that the entire issue of the desegregation of the public schools did not work or at least the government was not sincere in the claim that it was working on the desegregation of the school. The issue of the segregation seems like it is alive in the public school systems. The government either worked hard towards including the students from the minority races in the public school system that they ended up being the majority students in the system or the government was not willing to see the entire program to the end such that it managed the opinion of the members of the public by the manipulation of the admission. Either way, the main conclusion that one can derive from the system is that the rate of discrimination in the society is not dwindling but it is rapidly shifting. This also means that the society has been aware of the issue and the trend has been sanctioned by the silence of the people and the choices that they make when electing the politicians into office (Case 205). The running theme in the Republican Party is that there must be equality in all the aspects of life of the people. The republicans may be seen as the members of the party that often demand that there must be some degree of equality in all that the people do. The philosophy of equality was echoed by the progressive views of Teddy Roosevelt. In the speeches that he gave, there was a constant undertone that the people have to be equal. Some of the people may end up with the misplaced notions that the republicans are the main leaders of the inequality debate. However, as long as the party has been in existence, the main agenda has been the clamour for the equality of all the people. The republican’s quest for equality manifests itself, even in the current times. One of the most recent events on the issue was the resolution of the party in the last elections to push for the equality in the schools by the enacting a second desegregation. The people booed Mitt Romney after he attempted to push for more integration of the education system. The people that were booing the candidate were definitely advocating for the sustenance of the status. There is also a high chance that the people were democrats that wanted to ensure that the trend of segregation would continue. The push for the integration is not a central issue in the agenda of most of the candidates in the Democratic Party. This means that the issue of the integration has never been a prime element in the agendas of most of the parties since they are more than ready to continue oblivious to the developments they were taking place in the society. Project Vote Smart is an organization that has had an important role in the reduction of the rates of discrimination in the society. In as much as the issue of the discrimination in the school system is increasing, the organization has made it a priority in its addresses. The primary role of the organization is to audit the ideologies passed by the politicians in order to make the people have the best knowledge base when they go to the voting process. The organization has been working on the reduction of any form of discrimination by the collection of data on the rate of discrimination in the society. The proactive officials in the determination of the way forward apply the data collected when it comes to the reduction of the act of discrimination in the society. The fact that the organization is always willing to look for the information on the discrimination activities in the society makes it possible for the people to stay informed over the issue and to avoid being duped by the officials that state that the discrimination in the society died with the determination of the Brown vs. Board of Education case and the enactment of the recommendations that came after the determination. The rationality that the organization uses in the education is that the people that are well informed end up making the best decisions on the entire issue of the discrimination in the education system. It also keeps that people that have any interest in the issue well informed on the developments of the matter. The group runs on the whole idea that the entire political system is not really interested in the attainment of the right conditions for the people. The founder of the group was a former politician an in one of the debates he commented on the general practice of the politicians of asking for the money from the people and asking them to vote for them after they have used the money offered to them by the electorate to transform themselves into what they think will appeal to all the people. The groups seek to expose the politicians for what they are in the real sense by ensuring that they are accountable for their statements on some of the issues that are evident in the society (English 298--311). The discrimination of the people in terms of the races has been a largely emotive issue in the society of the American people. Since the abolishment of the Jim Crow rules, the ruling class was wittingly and rarely unwillingly led to the return of the nation to the old days of the inequality. Given that the ability of the government to control the discrimination in the private spaces, the grip on the mode of operation manifested in the public places such as the public school system ought to be undertaken in such a manner that the people will be willing to accommodate each other (Case 205). The organization seeks to ensure that the people have the candidness of the politicians in order for them to determine the way they look at the vital issues. The organization also seeks to look at the role of the society in the continuation of the practice of segregation. The group membership is not an issue of open knowledge. This is because of the approach that the group uses to recruit members into it (English 298--311). The membership into the group is not restrained to the people of a certain class. On the contrary, the group admits all the people through their online platform. The people that are recruited into the group are deemed as members and contributors. This means that it can even end up accommodating people that come from other places outside the United States of America. The group is a not for profit organization. This means that it does not engage in any activity with the view of gaining the profits. On the contrary, the group thrives on the amounts of money contributed to it by the well-wishers in the society (Gordon and Piana et al. 1-5). The focus of the group is on the local and national level (English 298--311). The information that it provided is on all the officers that seek elective position in the state level and the national level. The information that comes from the group is instrumental in the eventual decision making by the members and the electorate when they are selecting the people to run their affairs at the particular elective level. The group provides the information on its website so it has a worldwide reach, but it only shares the information on the candidates that is seeking to be elected in the United States. The issue of discrimination of the student in the public sector is not a recurrent in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, the population of the minority groups is not as large as it is in the United States (Kousser 17--44). In the country, the same policy of the government not interfering with the affairs of the private sectors is prevalent. In this case, the power of the people to company over the discrimination in the education sector only goes as far as the students that are discriminated against are in the public sector. The approach of the government in the treatment of the students from minority groups is more of an integration one. The students attend the same schools with the other white students who are the majority. The other unique aspect of the United Kingdom is that the segregation in terms of the pricing of the schools cannot work. The people that are poor cut across all the races. This means that even the poor people schools are also made up of the white students that come from the poor races of the gypsies and other tribes that come from the eastern parts of Europe (Dunn 98). In conclusion, the approach that the government uses in the treatment of the education sector is really lacking. The approach ends up returning the country to the time of discrimination. The progress made by the activists for the equality of all the people are gradually being eroded by the silent watch of the government as the education system reverts to the times of discrimination slowly. The government should ensure that the education system in not separate since this is a public service and the rules for the separation of people while retaining their equality are only applicable in the businesses that are strictly private. Works cited Case, Rebecca L. "Not Separate but Not Equal: How Should the United States Address Its International Obligations to Eradicate Racial Discrimination in the Public Education System." Penn St. Intl L. Rev., 21. (2002): 205. Print. Dunn, Christopher. "Challenging racial discrimination in the public schools of New York State." Equity & Excellence, 32. 3 (1999): 19--24. Print. English, Fenwick W. "On the intractability of the achievement gap in urban schools and the discursive practice of continuing racial discrimination." Education and Urban Society, 34. 3 (2002): 298--311. Print. Gordon, Rebecca, Libero Della Piana and Terry Keleher. "Facing the Consequences: An Examination of Racial Discrimination in US Public Schools." ERIC, (2000): Print. Kousser, J Morgan. "Separate but not equal: The Supreme Courts first decision on racial discrimination in schools." The Journal of Southern History, (1980): 17--44. Print. Read More