LIFE IN THE 'POST-RACIAL' ERA

A SMALLTALK SALUTE goes out to NBA Players Assoc. Pres. Chris Paul and the rest of the L.A. Clippers players who hung together in protest against the racism spewed by club owner Donald Sterling. Even though they were beaten by Golden State last night, they acted with dignity and grace. Though their protest was silent, nobody could mistake the clarity and forcefulness of their message.

STERLING -- "Don't bring them to my games."  EMANUEL -- "Don't bring them to my selective enrollment schools."  WHAT'S THE DIFF? Somebody tell me please.

From the Sun-Times:

The increase in the number of white students fulfills the predictions of education observers that minority students would be edged out of slots at the city’s top schools as a result of a 2009 ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles P. Kocoras lifting a 1980 consent decree that had required Chicago’s schools to be desegregated, with no school being more than 35 percent white. -- "White students getting more spots at top CPS high schools"

Kocoras' 2009 decision came only a long, intense campaign to have the consent decree vacated, led by Arne Duncan, his successor Ron Huberman and Mayor Daley, who saw the deseg struggle as futile and as a drain on district funds.

I'll say one thing about Duncan. He's consistent. He's against "forced integration." Although he did support a little affirmative action for the daughter of billionaire Bruce Rauner.

CAROLYN EDGAR @SALON.COM:

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, it is a good time to acknowledge that the tools that dismantled Jim Crow 60 years ago are inadequate to address systemic inequality today. We need new tools to repair a socioeconomic, political and judicial system that, despite the numerous gains made in the last 60 years, remains separate and unequal. -- Modern racists just repeat conservative talking points: Donald Sterling, Cliven Bundy and the ugly face of GOP policies