From “Good Will” to “Anachronism” Racial Discourse, Shifting Demographics, and the Role of School Desegregation in the Public Good

2015 
This article explores the challenges that have made the pursuit of school integration difficult in the contemporary era. Using court records and newspaper archives, we explore how a New York City school desegregation order came to be seen as ‘‘unnecessary,’’ ‘‘unfair,’’ and ‘‘anachronistic,’’ claims that seem to deny the salience of race in one of the most segregated school systems in the nation. In 1974, Mark Twain Junior High School in Coney Island became the first New York City school to desegregate under federal district court order. Three decades later, Mark Twain was a highly desirable magnet school under a court-mandated desegregation plan that left students across the city competing fiercely for admissions. In 2007, an immigrant parent from India successfully sued New York City, claiming his daughter was passed over in favor of white students who scored lower on the city’s selective school screening test but were admitted in the name of maintaining the 1974 courtmandated racial balance. We argue that Mark Twain’s story vividly illustrates not only the importance of demographic change in school desegregation policy but also 1 New York University, New York, NY, USA Corresponding Author: Alexandra Freidus, New York University, New York, NY, USA. Email: alex.freidus@nyu.edu Humanity & Society 1-25 a The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0160597615601716 has.sagepub.com Humanity & Society OnlineFirst, published on September 9, 2015 as doi:10.1177/0160597615601716
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