America, Face It. We Are Still A Segregated Society.
To begin my entry, I want to present some facts about American society.
"5.4 percent of U.S. churches are racially integrated, meaning no one group makes up more than 80 percent of the congregation." [1]
"The percentage of black children who now go to integrated schools has dropped to its lowest level since 1968." [2]
"The statistics from the 2000-2001 school year show that whites are the most segregated group in the nation’s public schools; they attend schools, on average, where eighty percent of the student body is white." [3]
"Despite public perceptions to the contrary, segregated workplaces exist in greater numbers today than ever before, largely because of the influx of newly arrived immigrant workers in low-wage industries throughout the country" [4]
"The number of public schools experimenting with single-sex education is still small but has shot up in recent years – from five to at least 241 in the last decade – as districts in more than half the states take the chance that separating boys and girls will help students learn better." [5]
Unfortunately, these numbers do not do justice to the arrested development of our progressive ideals as characterized by the Civil Rights Movement. We have moved away from becoming a truly integrated society into a society that has given way to the Darwinian forces of survival of the fittest, in which being fit is largely determined by education, socioeconomic status, race, gender and privilege. What this means in the long run is that we will regress to the extent that we will conveniently forget why there was ever a fight to begin with. We will turn a blind eye to the judicial philosophy that segregated schools are not equal schools. We will make mockery of "political correctness" as if though minority groups' and women's demands are overrated and overstated. We will defer or rather surrender to the traditional ruling class of the United States which is largely white and male. They, in turn, will and have begun turning the tide on this progressive agenda because they are hostile to trends that they see as undermining their status in the United States. We will be left with the rule of many by a very few. And the next generation will be left to clean up our mess. That is, if we don't resume the proper and moral course.
What Can Be Done
The first step that we can take is by diversifying the people that steer the ship. Contrary to popular belief, politicians are not the only people that matter. Obviously, if we were to increase the racial, cultural, ethnic, ideological, gender, and otherwise underrepresented perspective of other groups, then there is a greater potential for change and less chance for relapse, but the real threat to greater integration lies in our popular culture; television, books, movies, and the like. They are responsible for lulling us into complacency through sensationalized and meaningless noise, so much so that we have lost touch with what matters most, the full realization of our selves. How can we contemplate the United States without words like equality, liberty, opportunity, and justice? How can we meet these fundamental and eternal goals without keeping that fire aflame? We must return to these questions and in doing so, re-ignite the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement.
