Can the center hold?

This is not a rhetorical question.

The US Supreme Court dealt its citizens a one-two-three punch last week, making this year’s celebration of “Independence Day” seem particularly hollow for all but the narrow slice of conservatives driving the Court’s policies.

Businesses can discriminate against LGBTQ folks; colleges and universities cannot base admission on race; and the millions with school debt? Screw you, the Court told them.

What a week for those of us who always wanted to believe in the myth of “one people, undivided, with liberty and justice for all.”

My college has already issued a statement about upholding the values of diversity and inclusion. No doubt most liberal, “blue state” colleges and universities will do the same, continuing to look for qualified candidates of color to fill the ranks of both students and employees.

But that’s the problem. There’s a shortage of “qualified BIPOC candidates” in most US pipelines, for a simple reason: we live, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor put it, in “an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.”

The real problem comes long before the college years. It’s that we still live in overwhelmingly segregated neighborhoods, where school funding is unequal because it’s tied to property values, and because of historical discrimination (to put it mildly) BIPOC neighborhoods tend to be poorer.

This is where the Federal government could have a huge impact: make school spending per student equal, no matter where a child goes to school.

My readers know that I am critical of much of what passes for education these days. Huge and fundamental reimagining is necessary. But while we’re deliberating about how to renovate the house, let’s make sure we address the rot in the foundational timbers!

It’s a disgrace that children are still being discriminated against based on their economic status, which is so often, thanks to “endemic” discrimination, based on skin color.

Today’s young Americans, no matter where they live, deserve to go to clean, bright, well-ventilated schools; to be taught by well-paid, inspiring teachers; to receive the same resources of books, media and computers; and to enjoy the same advantages of extracurriculars, from travel to sports to arts and music programs.

The debts of student loan holders from the past 30 years should be forgiven on this basis alone, that they were not by any means given a level playing field at the start.

We’ve had affirmative action for white people and affirmative action for rich people since the founding of this country.

Only a generation or two ago, women were not allowed in most colleges, universities and professions. Jews were kept out, as were Irish and Italians—until these groups learned to play the racist system and pass for white.

The bottom line is that every single person in the United States should be equally well-prepared in the K-12 years for the demands of higher education, no matter what they look like, where they live or what their family income is.

School funding, from kindergarten to graduate school, should be primarily paid for by progressive federal taxes, equally distributed, just like every other wealthy Western country does it.

And what one does in the privacy of one’s bedroom is of no concern to the state, no matter one’s sexual orientation or gender, as long as it is loving and consensual.

What can citizens do when they no longer trust their rulers—in this case, their Supreme Court?

In a huge, fractious, anxious and trigger-happy country like the United States, it’s reasonable to wonder whether our union will survive.

Will we splinter into ideological bioregions as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale becomes a reality? Or can the center hold?

The next couple of years will be critical.

What can each of us do to tip the balance in the favor of diversity, equity and inclusion for all?

This is not a rhetorical question. Let’s think deeply on it, and report back.

So much depends on what you and I choose to do in the very short term.

Tattered flag; image by Joe Mabel, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0