http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_nandinee_080405_has_america_overcome.htm
4/5/08
Has America really overcome segregation, in the same way as it has put a man on moon? Is it an achievement that is done and over with? In the 21st century, several cities and suburbs in America remain highly segregated. African Americans face, by far, the highest levels of residential segregation, and Latinos, especially lower income Latinos, live in segregated conditions too. U.S public schools are re-segregating to alarming levels throughout the length and breadth of the nation. Schools are re-segregating most rapidly in the South. In some parts of the country, Latino students today face higher levels of school segregation than even African American students did before the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision of 1954 ........
The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world today, and segregated minority neighborhoods directly contribute to this. There are few employment opportunities available for residents of such neighborhoods and crime levels are high...........
If these trends are allowed to continue, the U.S. could easily become a place like or worse than Brazil, with a severe division between the mainstream and those who live in slums or favelas, and where brutality against poor, minority children is commonplace. Early symptoms of what is in Brazil a full-blown syndrome are already visible in the U.S. Our criminal justice system is increasingly putting children in prisons. The number of juvenile offenders in state prisons more than doubled between 1985 and 1997, at a time when the incidence of serious and violent crimes by youth was decreasing. The Children’s Defense Fund in the U.S. has termed these alarming trends “The Cradle to Prison Pipeline®.
Segregation in America must be overcome. For the sake of one nation with liberty and justice for all.
