The Bus Life
Hannah-Jones talks very passionately in her article. She refers to this, “The term ‘busing’ is a race-neutral euphemism that allows people to pretend white opposition was not about integration but simply about a desire for their children to attend neighborhood schools. But the fact is that American children have ridden buses to schools since the 1920s.” To this day children are still riding buses but what’re the differences now? It’s not segregated. You’ll find children with all kinds of backgrounds on these buses but back then this wasn’t the case. Jones says, “During my reporting, I have heard many stories of black children walking long distances to their assigned schools and being covered in dust by the passing big yellow buses — paid for with the tax dollars of black parents as well — that were shuttling white children to their white schools.” These school buses were looked at as a main source of transportation for these students but there was something deeper going on in these buses that might not always stand out. The Brown v. Board of Education really struck the media. Oliver Brown is the one to thank for all of this. There was a time period where Black students where getting bussed across town just because they weren’t allowed to go to the school closest to them if it was filled with white students. This law changed all of that. Eventually segregation within schools were put to a stop.
In order for people to really understand the full story, they need to be given the full story. That means the good and the bad to it. Hannah-Jones states, “They said busing stoked racial tensions, as if race relations had been just fine when black people stayed in their place.” Some individuals love to look for any excuse when it comes to trying to get their way. The media can preach whatever they want but at the end of the day statistics will always show other wise. Brown tells us that, “To this day, according to data collected from the Education Department, the whiter the school, the more resources it has.” This is just one of the problems we still have within our education system. The Lethal blow included, “In Milliken v. Bradley, it struck down a lower court’s order for a metropolitan desegregation plan that attempted to deal with white flight by forcing the all-white suburban school districts ringing Detroit to integrate with the nearly all-black city system.” This was going to cause an uproar. For the white students who wanted to avoid black students then they had to move to a white town with white schools. This was all the build up that led to white and black students beginning to work in classrooms. But of course History always repeats itself and instead of saying we’ve done a great job and continued to grow would be a lie. Students of all ethnical backgrounds are dealing with something similar to this all over the world.
Just within the county of Marin you can witness segregation. The education system would be a big one out here. I think a lot of the students I work with during my community partnership face racism on the daily. There’s students in this program who could be undocumented and may be scared to really stick up for themselves. So instead they stay quiet and just let what’s thrown at them just happen. Everyone has their own idea on what goes on in this world and they can make up their own numbers but the truth is, numbers don’t lie. Statistics come out and that’s the truth. That’s the evidence that things are truly based off of. These facts are what should eliminate social myths because that isn’t true information given out. Arendt says that “thinking is dangerous” — because if we think, we must challenge the status quo and unjust structures.” I find this so true because thinking allows the mind to wonder and when that happens you build questions. Thinking and questioning builds character and helps create bonds at the same time. It helps you gain some intelligence and develop more as a person.
