Prometheus 6

Catching the changes as they occur is a LOT better than recognizing them as you analyze what went wrong.

Expecting integration, Americans find themselves confronting polarization and fragmentation. Amid all the problems that have made Americans sour and pessimistic, this is the deepest.

It could be that all we need is a change of leadership in order to rediscover the sense that we’re all in this together. That’s what the Obama and Bloomberg boomlets are all about. It could be we just need to work harder to overcome racism and tribalism.

But it could be the dream of integration itself is the problem.

Thank you Mr. Brooks. And I ain't mad at ya for saying it. I just want to make it clear: Black Americans were not the obstacle. Black Americans were not the ones fighting tooth and nail against it. Even those Black people who did resist it just wanted to get out of its way.

Liberals are going to assault the man for this one. Not me. It just seems to me those white folk who are inclined to are already working on understanding...what, I'm not always clear on. And there's enough white folks actively opposing integration that, added to those who are confused by their intentional fogging of the issues, and those who can't support the effort required, and those to whom it simply wasn't an issue, the handwriting on the wall has long been visible.

[TS] The End of Integration
By DAVID BROOKS

Nothing is sadder than the waning dream of integration. This dream has illuminated American life for the past several decades — the belief that the world is getting smaller and that different peoples are coming together over time.