Brown v. Board of Education and Wise

While the website on Brown v. Board of Education said that the case was a landmark one in overturning segregation in America, I have to agree with Wise when he says that Americans today still remain oblivious. Wise basically says that Americans only pretend that racial inequality does not exist anymore, when in fact it does.

I think that the problem with racial inequality in America, which may only get worse, is the fact that so many people ignore the subject, or are at least not knowledgeable about it. The fact the nobody ever talks about racial inequality is one of the biggest reasons why it still exists.

Brown v. Board of Education may not be as liberating as some people may think. The decision of the case only declared de jure segregation unconstitutional, that is, only segregation that was enforced by law became illegal. The decision did not, however, make de facto or "by custom", segregation illegal. So even thoguh segregation wasn't happening by law anymore, that didn't mean, and still does not mean, that segregation does not happen by "tradition" or "custom", for a lack of better words. Moreoever,the decision of the case said that the new decision was to be enforced "with all deliberate speed". This is a very vague time span. The court, by saying this, basically was saying to predominately white lawmakers: "it's okay, you can get around to de-segregating whenever you feel like it". The question that's raised by this is: have lawmakers even today reached "all deliberate speed"?

Tim Wise made a good point in his interview. The majority of Americans still remain oblivious to racial inequality, and that is the biggest cause of the problem.