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RACE, JUSTICE, AND DESEGREGATION1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2014

Derrick Darby  and
Argun Saatcioglu
Derrick Darby*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Michigan
Argun Saatcioglu
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and (by courtesy) Department of Sociology, University of Kansas
*
Corresponding author: Professor Derrick Darby, University of Michigan, Department of Philosophy, 2215 Angell Hall, 435 South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In this essay we argue that the ideology of colorblind justice has made resisting the retreat from public school desegregation a hard sell in postracial America. We do not believe that desegregation is the silver bullet for solving all the problems with public education. Nor do we believe that it alone can close the racial achievement gap. Yet there is convincing evidence regarding the potential benefits of desegregation and evidence on its negative consequences is weak. Therefore we believe that it is a policy still worth pursuing. Our hope is that by casting light on the anatomy of colorblind justice and its limits we can contribute to ongoing efforts to ensure that desegregation remains in the conversation about how to address the unfinished business of racial justice.

Keywords

DesegregationEducationInequalityJusticeEgalitarianismPostracialism
Type
Race in a “Postracial” Epoch
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , Spring 2014 , pp. 87 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2014 

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