ETHNICITY, Proviso West's history of race relations [D209]

On May 29, 1994 The New York Times Magazine published "We're All Racist Now" by H. G. Bissinger. (To see a poor copy of the article you can go to p. 47 of Race Relations and Equal Education Opportunities at Proviso West High School, pdf.)

The thesis of Bissinger's article wasn't terribly contraversial for liberals. It was the same as Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities (Harper Perennial, 1992).

White folks didn't like sending their children to school with Blacks and Latinos. And if they weren't gonna send their children there they were also going to be stingy with the tax dollars.

Kozol told the story from the point of view of the children, families, educators and administrators being short-changed. (I'm working from recollection, it's been awhile since I read the book.)

What made Bissinger's writing more contraversial, I suspect, was that he quoted individuals saying some offensive stuff. He told about teachers that stopped trying. He let the "Whites" show their anger about Blacks.

Proviso West came off looking bad.

Bissinger's point was not that Proviso West was a hotbed of inter-ethnic tension. His point was that Proviso West's situation of declining "White" enrollment in the 'burbs and declining financial commitment to public education made it an example of what was happening to much of the U.S. public education system.

Of course, most readers saw the problems Bissinger was using the illustrate his points, but either didn't see or didn't want to deal with the larger issues.

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission held hearings on Proviso West. Bissinger wrote a response to the hearings. See report (pdf, p. 65).

What could have been a serious and urgently needed discussion largely digressed into a slanderous witch hunt against myself and the New York Times Magazine....

While I applaud the efforts of the Illinois Advisory Committee in addressing the crucial issue of racial attituteds at an American high school, I cannot help but question the wisdom of thinking that the very private matter of race could ever be genuinely discussed in the forum of a public hearing.... with peers, colleagues and the media zeroing in on every word.

So why was the reaction to the story so extreme? Because certain people within the story got caught. Caught at what? Caught at speaking honestly about the subject of race without any awareness of the hideousness and repugnance of their comments.... I interviewed six white honor students at Proviso West.... Here is a taste of what they had to say about blacks as quoted in the article:

I cannot stand the race. I'll never date anyone who isn't white.

They're always saying 'slave' this and 'slave' that. Sorry, I don't know a slave. I never owned a slave. I'm sick of them throwing it in our face.

Ignorant and scum, a lot of poverty, self-righteous, you owe me that, you owe me this, gimme, gimme, gimme.

With the laudable exception of superintendent Eric Eversley, person after person who came before the committee bent over to an almost absurd degree to describe Proviso West as a perfect and harmonious place.... We can paint pretty pictures and be politically correct, but the answer is obvious: As blacks and Latinos started coming into the high school, white parents started pulling their children out.

[This is] caused by fear, misunderstanding, resentment and in some cases outright contempt.... The parable of Proviso West is the parable of our modern America.

How did Bissinger's article the report of the Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights affect Proviso West and District 209?

I theorized that the backdoor tax increase to build PMSA may have been somewhat justifiable if the D209 advocates believed they weren't going to get a fair hearing from the voters because they were going to vote against any new money for the district.

One observer countered that a referendum would have done OK with the "White" voters traditionally opposed to funding D209 because it was perceived that the magnet school was for "White" children. This person said a referendum would have failed because too many Black voters shared this outlook and intended to vote against money for D209 because it was perceived the money was being earmarked for "Whites".

Or was the Bissinger article and the subsequent report just a brouhaha at the time with no significant lasting effects?