Separation anxiety?

Nebraska's only black senator, Ernie Chambers, is fighting to re-segregate Omaha district schools. He might not describe it in those terms exactly, but the legislation he backs is pretty clear. Public schools in Omaha, according to the New York Times, will be divided into three racially distinctive districts -- one largely black, one largely white and one largely Hispanic. \nI, for one, am largely stumped. \nOn one hand, if Chambers were a white guy, then I'd quickly call upon the Ruby Bridges and Linda Brown in me, to make a bold statement against him. I'd remind the senator that 1954's Brown v. Board of Education decision proved separate was not equal. I'd argue that, just as in the days before Brown, segregation today has as much power to etch an irreparable psychological scar on the minds of black children as it did more than 50 years ago.\nBut instead, my experiences and Chambers' background won't allow me to deny the positive possibilities of his proposal to divide the school districts. Surely, some might wonder how the man who fought to end apartheid and the columnist who jumps on the purveyors of even the slightest hint of racial inequality, would entertain the idea of segregating schools.\nBut as Chambers said during a debate on the floor of the legislature, "My intent is not to have an exclusionary system but we, meaning black people, whose children make up the vast majority of the student population, would control (the district)."\nI view Chambers' statement to mean he believes that if black parents and black school officials were in charge, then they might do a better job of allocating resources to and educating their own black children. \nMy parents, for example, sent me to Blessed Sacrament School -- a predominately black institution run by a majority white Catholic school diocese. Constant defeat by white kids in everything from sixth grade basketball to standardized test scores almost led me to believe that, as a fact of life, white kids always won.\nI never thought they had better brains or hoop skills, because my mom and dad had taught me better than that. But I was frustrated by the fact that St. Mary's kids lowered their fiberglass backboards out of pristine gym ceilings, while we secured our roll-away "Chicago Bulls" hoops with sandbags in the cafeteria/social hall/gym. \nWe were one of only two predominately black schools in the diocese, and I realized then that our losses could be attributed to our lack of funding. I attributed our lack of funding then to the fact that most of us were black.\nI'm not sure if Chambers' proposal includes a guarantee that the black school district will be funded just as well as the white and Hispanic ones. If it is, then I'd love to see someone prove that black children fail to succeed not when their classrooms are devoid of white children, but when their classrooms are devoid of equitable funding.\nI never believed my color made me a loser. I simply knew it had the power to me keep from winning.