The American dream while Black: ‘We took our foot off the gas pedal’
by Erin Einhorn and Nigel Chiwaya
Aug. 31, 2020
NBC News
“The consequences of that resegregation have been painful, said Rucker Johnson, an economist and public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. ‘We must think of racism as an infectious disease and silence leaves the disease untreated,’ said Johnson, the author of ‘Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works.’ When communities resegregated schools, he said, they halted progress in bridging academic and economic gaps that had long existed between Blacks and whites.”
“‘Despite those challenges, [Erica] Frankenberg said, it was a start. ‘We brought kids and teachers of different races together in the same building, which particularly in the South had not been done before, and the significance of that undertaking alone cannot be understated.’ ‘But then,’ Frankenberg added, we took our foot off the gas pedal for desegregation.’”
NCSD Member Myron Orfield is also quoted.