Talking Point #6 (Lawrence)

I feel Lawrence is arguing that the Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated schools back in 1954, was not really a success if we look closely at it. The case might of started a spark that ignited all the boy-cotts, sit-ins, and marches after the case decision but one can not be to certain. He says that the case only focused and dealt with the effect of school segregation, but did not recognize the purpose of segregation as a whole, which is to designate blacks as inferior in the society.

1. "It is the thesis of this paper that the Brown decision fostered a way of thinking about segregation that has allowed both the judiciary adn society at large to deny the reality of race in America, that the recognition of that reality is critical to the framing of any meaningful remedy-judicial or political- and that Brown may ultimately be labeled a success only insofar as we are able to make it stand for what it should have stood for in 1954." I got this quote pretty much rate from the beginning of Lawrence's article and he comes rate out and states the reason for this article and states what he argues. I felt by him coming rate out and telling the reader what his thesis, made it easier to follow along and understand.

2. "In short, segregation American-style, like South African apartheid, has only one purpose: to create and maintain a permanent lower class or subcaste defined as race." This quote or sentence from the article got my interest because I had a class that went over in depth about South African apartheid and this allowed me to compare segregation to something else.

3. "Once established it will not be eliminated by mere removal of public sanction but must be affirmatively destroyed." I got this quote from the section of the article that went over the three underlying characteristics of segregation. This pointed out that by the Brown case just merely eliminating segregation at schools was not enough. It was only a step, but a lot more need to be done to improve the society.

I was only able to read the first couple of pages of this article because I have had a lot of other work to do, but from what I read it has caught a good bit of my interest and can not wait until I have time to finish reading the rest of the article.