Surely, we can imagine a program greater than the few in existence that would be national in scope and serve everyone’s interests. Race based palliatives, no matter the rationalization, will never be seen as legitimate. In her recent book, Inventing Human Rights, Lynn Hunt describes that human rights have three essential features. They are equal, natural or inherent, and universal. In this post soul political era should we be focused more on the universal?

Liberal and progressive advocates for racial desegregation remind me of the proponents of the Bretton Woods system of international finance. Writing about the old order in his book, Gold, Dollars, and Power, Francis J. Gavin shows how very smart people will put up with a dysfunctional system just because they are afraid of the unknown. Are we in a similar situation?

Race based remedies are such small expedients and attended by irritable side effects. Do we still need them? Can we strive for something larger like Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s proposal for a constitutional ammendment guaranteeing the right to quality education? Can we go beyond high stakes testing as the measure of merit? I, for one, hope that we can emerge from this decision with our determination intact and look for more creative solutions.