My understanding of the notion of “busing” in relation to school desegregation changed after reading Delmont’s chapter in many ways. My original perspective was that busing was a positive alternative for New York City public schools to provide for African American students who were seeking admittance to better-funded schools that provided better opportunities. What I did not know was the extent of the “white backlash” to this alternative. Additionally, I did not realize that the argument involving this “busing” policy dominated the debate of integrating schools rather than the original protest of African American families calling for better-funded schools and equal opportunities in the New York City public education system.
I was really surprised to learn in Delmont’s chapter the extent of backlash this policy received from white families and even how it was portrayed to the public. Through this reading, I gained the understanding that this policy was only a small provision provided by the Board of Education, but the issue was interpreted as a policy that would affect all New York City students resulting in students commuting for an hour or longer. Additionally, many discouraged parents from partaking in “bussing.” Even the “open enrollment policy,” while it portrayed the Board of Education as compliant and in agreement with efforts to integrate schools, this option was not widely accessible and led to little integration.
A large part of this is due to the way it was portrayed in the media. “Busing” dominated a lot of articles in various media outlets such as in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Additionally, the coverage of the Harlem protests in comparison to the white family protests was filmed in such a way that created “point-counterpoint interview segments.” This insinuates the equivalency between the protests of civil rights activists and the demands of white parents who opposed school desegregation. Delmont stated, “Instead of seeing school segregation as an issue that necessarily involved changing structures of racial discrimination, “busing” enable parents, schools’ officials, politicians, and the media to frame the story around the preferences and demands of white parents.” Ultimately this diverted the attention towards better education opportunities and instead made integration a focal point.
I believe that this was the crux of this article, the idea that busing became the focal point of white families, masking the true demand of African American parent’s protest for better schooling options.
Thanks for this, Ashley-Mei. I find it interesting that so many of you had thought about busing in the context of New York City as a way to get to school. Although I grew up in a suburb where most kids took a bus to school, we never referred to it as “busing.” I grew up at a time when that term was exclusively used for desegregation.