Chicago Trib: Say it was so, Joe! Biden was right to oppose busing in the '70s

[ucrdem]

By ERIC ZORN | CHICAGO TRIBUNE |JUL 02, 2019 | 3:33 PM

Trib: Eric Zorn is an op-ed columnist for the Chicago Tribune with a liberal/progressive bent who specializes in local news and politics.

Kamala Harris made me feel young again on Thursday, when she turned to Joe Biden during a Democratic presidential primary debate and attacked him for having been against busing in the 1970s as a remedy for segregated public schools.

“Do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America?" Harris asked. “Do you agree?”

(snip)

His reply should have been a simple “No.”

“Biden isn’t a historical or contemporary outlier on this subject,” said Northwestern University historian Brett Gadsden, whose 2013 book “Between North and South” focused on decades of desegregation efforts in Biden’s home state of Delaware. “Busing to achieve integration has always been unpopular.”

Dozens of public school districts around the country still use socioeconomic and demographic characteristics in voluntary efforts to desegregate. But, Gadsden said, “civil rights activists and educational reformers have shifted their focus toward recruiting teachers of color” to predominantly minority schools, “offering culturally relevant curriculum, correcting disciplinary disparities” and equalizing spending on black and white students.

(snip)

... as soon as Trump or his advisers realize what a powerful wedge issue this could be for him in next year’s general election, brace yourself for repeated and damaging blasts from the past.

Promoting busing to achieve integration didn’t end well for Democrats when I was a kid, and it won’t end well now.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/eric-zorn/ct-column-busing-kamala-harris-joe-biden-busing-integration-zorn-20190702-obnxkzbk35gnjekzildnobqvvu-obnxkzbk35gnjekzildnobqvvu-story.html

[Thekaspervote]

1. Thx for the informative post!

[ucrdem]

4. I think there's going to more of this in coming days

now that the shock is wearing off . . .

[Cha]

2. Thank You, ucr.. great source!

“Biden isn’t a historical or contemporary outlier on this subject,” said Northwestern University historian Brett Gadsden, whose 2013 book “Between North and South” focused on decades of desegregation efforts in Biden’s home state of Delaware. “Busing to achieve integration has always been unpopular.”

Promoting busing to achieve integration didn’t end well for Democrats when I was a kid, and it won’t end well now.

[ucrdem]

3. It took a while for it all to sink in I guess

but going after Biden on busing was not a good idea.

[Cha]

5. Yeah, these things do take

Last edited Wed Jul 3, 2019, 02:10 AM - Edit history (1)

a minute to realize what all the repercussions are and perhaps The Law of Unintended Consequences.

And, she "..planned it for months.. "

Good find!

[Skittles]

6. why is everyone having to explain what Joe meant, what Joe should have said

why can't he do it

[ucrdem]

7. This guy isn't a Joe-explainer and doesn't even seem to like Joe all that much.

The point is that once it sinks in that Harris was talking about busing, and not about some forgettable remark he's made a thousand times, they realize they agree with Joe.

[Skittles]

8. sounds like pretzel logic

[ucrdem]

9. LOL. Probably so.

It's a complicated issue.

[Cha]

11. So complicated!

[Cha]

10. Eric Zorn wrote Biden was right to oppose busing in the '70s

[mopinko]

12. eric, eric, eric. usually you are so good.

busing in chicago has given a couple of generations of kids a desegregated education.

and those kids were the best and brightest that their neighborhood schools had to offer.
w/o the consent decree, the whole system of voluntary integration doesnt happen.
no selective enrollment schools. no northside prep, no walter payton, no jones. not even a whitney young.

chicago public schools would be a very different system w/o federal enforcement. and eric zorn knows it.

[ucrdem]

14. hi mopinko,

thanks for the local detail! but here's a question: Biden as I understand mainly opposed federally mandated busing EXCEPT when it was court-ordered. You mentioned a consent decree so that would make Chicago school desegregation court-ordered wouldn't it? Another thing is aren't magnet schools and academies an alternative to busing?

[mopinko]

26. magnet kids get bused.

what the court ordered was that the city develop a plan for desegregation. the plan included new schools, and more access to gifted programs for kids across the city.

under daley2, schools were a big part of economic development. stopping the flight to the burbs was as serious as a heart attack.
cps built new schools, and there were a lot of new charters.
and before anyone goes off on me, we do charters right in chicago. no for profits. a lot of them are special focus, run by advocacy groups. the teacher's union has a charter. the univ of chi has several charters.
they havent hurt the district schools nearly as much as they have hit the catholic schools. they were long the only choice available. now there are free, public choices.

now, a lot of kids would have gotten a better chance if they HAD required busing. we could have swapped places w those rich kids in the burbs.
they solved the problem w/o the riots, but a lot of kids got screwed in the process.

"forced busing" always was coded language. it always meant taking a dime away from a rich kid to help a brown kid w nothing.
"local control" always was coded language. it always meant nimby. it was always the school reform version of "state's rights".

it was a gentleman's argument in joe's world. the other end of the stick looked pretty different.

[ucrdem]

29. Thank you!

Super information, hard to get from media stories. It's a complicated picture and I'm glad you cleared that up. The distinction between "federally mandated" and "court-ordered" is not one I was even aware of a week ago but if busing reenters the conversation in a big way it will be important to keep track of the nuances.

[emmaverybo]

13. Good find. I say this because MSM doesn't even try to appear to cover this issue fairly. P.S.

Why did moderators let Harris exceed the time limit for her dramatic monologue?

[ucrdem]

16. The moderators were useless.

They seemed to think their role was to pronounce a winner at the end of the spectacle.

[emmaverybo]

19. LoL perfect pic nt

[Cha]

22. LOL

[Cha]

15. Interesting.. smh..

Harris surged and Biden sagged in the polls after their dramatic exchange, and several other top Democratic hopefuls, including Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, then went on the record as being open to using busing as tool.

So here we are.

[ucrdem]

18. Yes that will making voting for Biden in the primary easy.

I could be wrong but if Kamala sticks with the issues she's declared she's going to lose California.

[Cha]

20. yeah, who knows?.. sometimes I

wish I had a crystal ball!

California wouldn't be in favor of busing?

[ucrdem]

24. Mandatory busing within or between districts to achieve desegregation, I am almost certain no.

It was hugely unpopular in the 60s and 70s. Attitudes everywhere have softened as the courts have struck down more and more of it, but if that's what Kamala has in mind, on a different basis such as diversity, it's going to be a very tough sell here.

[Cha]

25. Thanks for that.

yeah, we'll see what she has in mind as far as more busing is concerned.

[emmaverybo]

23. Like lemmings. Couldn't wait to follow. At least the crazy "voucher program" to kill off pub

Ed doesn’t seem to be at issue. I like Biden’s education plan.

[wellst0nev0ter]

17. Remember, bussing "didn't work" because of racism

unequal schools and white flight—not necessarily in those order.

If you oppose bussing, that's cool, but don't ignore what makes bussing so unpalatable even today.

[ucrdem]

21. Yes there's much truth to that.

But just to be clear (the article isn't) we're talking about mandatory busing that isn't court-ordered. That's going to get some serious pushback. That wasn't what Harris experienced as a child, and it might not be what she has in mind when she says she wants to revive busing, but it's what most people think of when they hear the word.

[cwydro]

27. Completely agree, and I'm speaking of one who was bused.

Awful experience for me and both the black and white classmates I knew.

[ucrdem]

28. cwydro I saw your story in another thread and it was awesome.

If you don't mind I'm going to find the link and post it below

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=183325

Very instructive. Thanks and hope you don't mind!

[cwydro]

30. Sure. Truly, at my much advanced age now, that time is a raw scar.

One of my sister’s friends suffered particularly, and she later died at her own hand. Super talented artist, beautiful girl...my parents always thought that the year the busing started was the beginning of her downturn. Long story, so I won’t tell it here.

Charlotte has always been a liberal city; the busing went much differently than in Boston, but it caused scars that have never healed.

[ucrdem]

31. Hard to believe it would ever reenter the political discourse

Kamala's Berkeley experience was no doubt very positive and she clearly benefited from it but Berkeley is typical of Berkeley period. By now a lot of the electorate probably has only a vague notion of what 70s era busing was all about, but if it becomes an issue in the GE I think we're going to get slaughtered.



p.s. thanks again for sharing that

[Cha]

32. Thanks for your personal

experience, cwydro. Sorry!

[Blue_true]

33. The Tribune is very rightwing, has always been. nt

[Cha]

34. From the OP..

Trib: Eric Zorn is an op-ed columnist for the Chicago Tribune with a liberal/progressive bent who specializes in local news and politics.

[ucrdem]

35. Thanks Cha!

Zorn apart this thread has been really eye-opening from the comments .. thanks again mopinko and cwydro!

[Cha]

36. Just trying to clear up any misconceptions

about the messenger, ucr.

U2Rock!

[ucrdem]

37. Happy 4th Cha!

[Cha]

38. Oh Nice!

Mahalo, ucr.. A Big Happy Fourth of July to you, too!



Hope that's not too much? lol I like yours better!