Jennifer Gratz one of the leaders in the fight against Affirmative Action in Michigan uttered the quote above in a Washington Post piece on end of Affirmative Action in Michigan. Of the one thing she got right–Affirmative Action was an extremely conservative attempt to solve pressing issues of racial discrimination–the idea that diversity happens naturally without government intervention has got to be the “wrongest.” School quality is correlated with neighborhood quality on the one hand, and on the socio-economic status of the parents (the mother specifically) on the other. Neighborhoods in states like Michigan are racially segregated and segregated by class.
This process does not occur without a combination of private interest–white property values increase the whiter a neighborhood is because they value racial exclusivity–and government policy. Many of the regions with the best schools in Michigan and elsewhere exist as a consequence of past racial discrimination perpetuated by government policy. And while it is now illegal to use racial covenants and the like to ensure “racial purity” there are ways around it (racial “steering”, coded language in real estate paperwork) that ensure similar results. Finally, the use of municipal zoning laws have been very effective at keeping low to moderate income families out of wealthier neighborhoods. This is government.
Charles Mills argues that whites have created a consensual hallucination that is difficult for them to get out of. Gratz is literally clueless about the ways that state policies create and maintain white supremacy because she (purposely) took the wrong pill.
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