resegregation

the more things change, the more they stay the same.

time magazine wrote about resegregation more than 40 years ago (find the article here). less than a decade after court-ordered desegregation, schools were becoming more segregated than ever. back then, many whites were leaving for the suburbs, leaving higher concentrations of blacks in the cities. and a number of black students, for a variety of reasons, were beginning to avoid racially-mixed schools. the article concluded, "the phenomenon of resegregation also suggests that the law can go only so far in correcting racial inequalities...."

fast forward to 2008. the christian science monitor reported recently that schools around the country are rapidly resegregating, citing a study from the civil rights project (see the article here). the reasons cited? in addition to the recent court rulings striking down voluntary integration programs, the main ones are white flight from the cities and widespread de facto segregation in neighborhoods. in a separate piece, pulitzer prize winner cynthia tucker adds that in her hometown, which remains racially integrated, whites have largely deserted the public school system -- in effect, recreating (mostly) black and (mostly) white schools.

the forces that keep us separated from one another are powerful and persistent. but God is at work. and he will reap the harvest he has sown.

for he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. (ephesians 2:14-16)