A Deafening Silence
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this summer on the school integration plans in Seattle and Louisville seemed to be met with a deafening silence by the nation’s civil rights groups. Weren’t they outraged? After all, this ruling appeared to be a betrayal of the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case.
Some groups were and are outraged, according to Ted Shaw, director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
“We are fighting tooth and nail against those like Ward Connerly who are trying to pretend that race no longer matters, and trying to declare ourselves colorblind before we have even finished the business of doing all that we can to create a society where race no longer defines not only who and what people are but the quality of their lives,” he says.
Nevertheless, the opponents of affirmative action, Connerly and others, believe they are winning the public relations and political struggle over the issue.
“It’s clear that the mainstream civil rights people are resigned to the inevitable.
