Seems intuitive to assert that integration would lead to less racism, as it is clear that racism typically thrives in absence of knowledge. But apparently there is research to back it up. I was just looking around to see what's out there about Gen X right now, and came across this on Wikipedia:
In the US, Generation X was the first cohort to grow up post-integration. They were described in a marketing report by Specialty Retail as the kids who “lived the civil-rights movement." They were among the first children to be bused to attain integration in the public school system. In the 1990s, demographer William Strauss reported Gen Xers were “by any measure the least racist of today's generations.”
It doesn't surprise me, though we have to admit that the "integration" we experienced as kids wasn't always done well. Being in the same school is not the same as being in the same classes and actually working together. But nonetheless, it's interesting to see research showing that our exposure through integration has led to less racism among our cohort.
I absolutely believe that the best school for kids is one in which there is no racial majority. Where multiple races are represented in significant numbers, my own experience has been that it kind of takes race off the table for kids. If there's no racial majority, there's no racial culture in the school, and the school gets to create its own culture. I've spent the last 10 years in schools with this demographic mix, and I believe in it.
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