Perspectives: A Win in the Diversity Column

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Perspectives: A Win in the Diversity Column

by F. Matthews , March 19, 2009

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In what could be considered the understatement of the year, John Payton said this about what has to be a major setback for diversity opponents: “This is an important victory.”

Payton, who is president and director–counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, was referring to a stunning decision by a California appellate court to uphold a school assignment diversity plan instituted in Berkeley, Calif.

The Berkeley Unified School District policy takes into account the demographics of the neighborhood where the students live, including the racial makeup of the neighborhood, education level of adults in that neighborhood and average household incomes.

The issue of race has been at the core of a long line of cases, including two that found there way to the United States Supreme Court in 2007.

Those cases came out of Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, Wash. In both cases a majority of the court held school assignments could not be based on students’ race. Even the consideration of race has been seen by many as being the ultimate objective of many opponents to any type of diversity effort.

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Comments posted here may be reprinted in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine, and may be edited for purposes of clarity and/or space.

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