Unlikely bedfellows on schools

Clarence Thomas and me. Two peas in a pod.

Surely no one could have been more stunned than I to see the U.S. Supreme Court's most conservative justice cite my experience in Seattle schools when he voted to strike down the district's race-based admissions policy. But there it is, right at the end of his opinion. Thomas thunders: "Indeed, if our history has taught us anything, it has taught us to beware of elites bearing racial theories."

He then lists examples. Such as how the Seattle schools had said it was "cultural racism" to emphasize individualism or to define one form of English as standard. He derides the district for sending students to a "White Privilege Conference."

Then he concludes: "See generally Westneat, School District's Obsessed with Race, Seattle Times, Apr. 1, 2007, p. B1 (describing racial issues in Seattle schools)."

I have no idea how that came to the attention of this Supreme Court justice. A co-worker joked Thomas must have stumbled on it while surfing around for that stuff I wrote about horse sex.

Seriously, it made my stomach churn. It made me doubt. I've always believed the rigid Thomas is bunkered in an ideological fantasy world far, far from my own.

Yet there we are, philosophical bosom buddies. On page 84 of the year's biggest legal decision. How did we meet minds?

To recap: Thomas is referring to a column I wrote about how my family spent four years raising funds and volunteering at our local school — which is majority black — only to eventually transfer our kid. The reason: overcrowded classes and an administration we felt was resistant to whites integrating a black school.

The column detailed a number of racially charged comments made by school-district employees, then asked: "Does the Seattle School District even want whites and blacks to go to school together?"

Thomas used this to suggest Seattle school leaders are so consumed by leftist racial ideology that they can't be "entrusted with the power to make decisions on the basis of race."

I have to say I agree. I disagree when Thomas argues race is irrelevant, that integration is a fool's goal. He's wrong: It matters. It's also true Seattle has an admirable history of trying to make education equitable.

But in recent years the district has seemed more about pigeonholing and assigning blame than bringing people together. And it has lost sight of what's more important than race — its job is to educate any kid who walks in the door.

Now some who feel I'm the poster child for white privilege will say Clarence and I deserve one another's company. Maybe so. But I bet a lot of you bleeding hearts agree with him, too. If even we ended up in his arms, maybe something in Seattle really has gone awry.

In any case, the Supremes just smacked the district upside the head. They did it a favor. Instead of pinwheeling about race, now the only way forward is to make poor, underperforming schools better. By lowering class sizes. Sending them the best teachers. Giving them private-school-quality extras.

That's where our focus always should have been. Today is a perfectly good day to start.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.