Rich liberals feel differently when their own children’s education is at stake.

Brooklyn Public School Battle: Progressives Are Opposing Integration | National Review Online

I’m finding the coverage of this fascinating. Not for what is being said -it is all pretty straight forward- but rather what does not enter the conversation.

Rich whites are racist sometimes, perhaps without even knowing that they are doing it. No big news there. People like the school they have, as it is now, better than the alternative. No big shocker there either.

Pride, ignorance, fear of the other, fear of change, wanting the best for ones children… Emotive, sensitive issues like this lend themselves to black and white (you don’t have to pardon the pun but I couldn’t resist) analysis.

Hypothetically speaking, I wonder how all parties would be reacting and what they would be saying about each other if race was somehow not part of issue and it was a given fact that the education at one school is dramatically better than what is offered at the other.