November 17, 1976

Busing Kids Won't Solve Adult Problems

A nostalgic trip to my former happy haunts of Detroit, Michigan, has left me in a mild state of shock.

The downtown area has gone to seed.  Store fronts stare vacantly at a few pedestrians who hurry by on purposeful errands not related to shopping.  Hudson Department Store - once the largest and busiest in the country - is nearly empty.

While I was there, a sports fan was shot to death and robbed of $4 in the parking lot of Olympia Stadium following a tennis match.  My elderly friend who lives in a senior citizen apartment building in the heart of the city is accompanied to church on Sunday mornings by armed police.

It is all very sad.

My friends who live in the city, and those who search for the good life in the suburbs, all agree on the cause of Detroit's decay - forced school busing.

As the big yellow buses criss-cross the once great city pursuing integration, the white population flees ever farther outward.  Now the Blacks outnumber white students in every school, and racial equality has become an impossible dream.

The courts, having speeded the demise of America's cities, now seek to remedy their error with more of the same.  In Detroit, a federal judge's decision to extend racial busing between communities has been appealed.  The rest of the nation watches apprehensively for a new precedent.

Detroit's present busing plan was inaugurated with a minimum of fuss, unlike the experience of Pontiac 25 miles to the north.  There upset parents boycotted the schools and burned school buses.

Boston, Massachusetts, watches the Detroit proposal for increased forced busing nervously.  The whites in that New England city have elected to oppose busing with force rather than flee to suburbs already overcrowded.

Neither side seems to be winning, but the losers are obvious - both blacks and whites who live in Boston.

Blacks in Boston's public schools, according to school department statistics, now outnumber white in the first 12 grades.  More than 20,000 white pupils of an original 53,000 have left the city's school enrollment since busing began there three years ago.

The situation in Boston is critical because of the large number of Roman Catholic families which traditionally are lukewarm towards public schools.  Provocation to force had to be deeply felt.

Significantly, the latest figures project a bleak future as far as racial harmony is concerned.  There now are 29,000 blacks and 28,000 whites enrolled in Boston schools.  In addition there are 8,600 "other" students of Hispanic, Asian and Indian background.

The largest concentration of black students is in the lower grades which means the racial imbalance will get worse before it gets better.

Densely packed cities are an anachronism organized historically in a pattern dictated by fortress walls and pedestrian traffic.  Such urban masses were in the process of a shrinkage when the federal courts tried to breakdown social and economic barriers by decree.

The result has been a decade of unrest and accelerated decay.

It is difficult to counsel patience when you are a victim of social and economic discrimination.  If I were a poor black I would press for change in my time.  Victory a century from now would be meaningless.

Yet, haste is counter productive.  It polarizes antagonists and intensifies the problem.  In the case of Detroit, Boston and other large cities, forced school busing has further segregated the races.  The solution has become part of the problem.

It seems to me that we are using our children to solve a problem adults should deal with.

The basic cause of segregation, in my opinion, is economic.  Earning power sets the level of social acceptance.  On this basis social equality will come automatically when a minority can get good jobs and buy its way into better neighborhoods.

Our effort to achieve equality should start with jobs and housing.  If we can bring these basic problem areas under control subsidiary sore spots will heal themselves.

It is a fact that Blacks suffer a subtle job discrimination.  Unemployment is highest with them. There are, of course, a complex of reasons for this - not the least of which is education and-or motivation.

However, ten years of busing has failed.  It is time to give up on that approach and try something at the adult level.  White reservoirs of jobs - particularly labor unions -must be made available to blacks without discrimination.  At the same time, Black leaders must convince the minorities they must work as hard, or harder, than white job holders.

Likewise, housing discriminations must be struck down everywhere, as Blacks and other minorities demonstrate an equal determination to put down crime and property neglect.

Social equality is a two-way street, but the greatest burden of proof is from the minority.  Those who want to move up have to go an extra mile, then another mile.  Unfair?  Perhaps, but it is reality.

Only when we deal with the realities of society can we build social harmony and make our big cities happy places again.

Author: Lindsey Williams