Quote:
Originally Posted by CAVA1990
I'm sure if you'd grown up in Southern Calfornia as I did you'd have a different perspective.
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Until 9th grade I lived in the San Fernando Valley. I remember one of the girls who stuck with us misfits in Junior High was black, but where I lived, residental wise, there were not a lot of black families. I don't recall much of a problem. Out Girls VP was a black woman, and after the previous one who'd been there since 1950, and thought it still was 1950, she was really appreciated. The first one thought girls should cover their knees with their skirts and we had 'skirt checks' in home room. All my skirts had taller waists. After skirt check you rolled it up to proper 1964 length. We had a few black families move into the neighborhood as well, and it didn't really bother anyone. The girl that stuck with us was on the outs not for being black but the nerdy wierd type.
The segreatation of schools in socal wasn't legistated or even designed, but residental. Los Angeles is a big place, and it became settled in relatively 'seperate' neighborhoods by choice. Its one thing to have a town where the black students go to their school and the white students theirs but they are all near both. The schools in the valley were geographically near where the great majority was white, so the students were too. I've never considered this segrigation as it was residental patterns which made it that way, not anyone's masterplan.
As a kid I would have hated the practice tried of bussing kids to some other school an hour away and probably have found ways to be 'sick' as often as possible. I went to a private school where I wasn't with the neighborhood kids and was sufficently unhappy that mom and dad put me in the local public one. And the bus ride sapped the mornings energy even later in High School where we'd moved and I had to take the bus. As a parent I would have fought tooth and nail to keep my kid out of a school many miles away, especially in an area which was dangerous. If something happened I would want to be there close enough to retrieve my kid. I don't think this approach did anything but justifyable outrage people who were NOT racially motivated, along with those who were.
There are still racial problems in schools. Where my son went to high school, at a highly rated California school, they covered a gang infested hispanic area and a gang infexted largely black area. They'd had to lock down the school because of gang disuptes which erupted on campus. There was also plenty of white on white bullying.
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