A school board in Raleigh, North Carolina is causing uproar after angry residents say that officials are trying to bring back segregation in schools.
The controversy comes as the Wake County school board reached a 5-4 decision Tuesday to reverse a busing policy aimed at bringing diversity to local schools.
Instead of busing students from across county lines, the buses will now concentrate on areas closer to the schools, areas that are predominantly white.
With the new “community school zone” program, opposition to the idea says that the lack of diversity will cause more schools to be filled with students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds that tend to be Black or Hispanic.
Protestors were heard outside of school board meetings chanting “Hey ho, hey ho, resegregation has got to go.”
State NAACP Chief William Barber was quoted saying that the school board has “racist attitudes” after the chairman of the board referred to people against the ruling as “animals of the cage.”
Speaking further with the Associated Press, Barber says that the implication to desegregate the schools is wrong morally, legally and economically.
“It’s morally wrong. It’s legally wrong. It’s economically wrong. Your press to go backward will only serve to intensify our moral, political and legal fight to go forward. We will never go back.”
The busing policy has been in effect for three decades.
SMH…if it’s not racism then what was the point of reversing a busing policy that’s been working for 30 years?
