i was bused from my 'model' multi-racial community to a high school that sat plumb in the middle of an upper-middle class neighborhood. the school was 40% jewish, 13% black, 20% caucasian, about 7% hispanic, etc. kids drove beemers and late model hondas. my family is working, working middle class, and so this was nothing shocking. high school was the bomb because of the diversity. if i hadn't attended this high school i don't think i would've gotten into Howard because of its national ranking. it was also cool because i had the opportunity to educate some extremely backwards-thinking southern white folks (teachers included)on a daily basis. my class started the first african-american studies elective, protested (signs, bullhorns) when miami's mayor snubbed nelson mandela's visit, and basically caught wreckage. they've recently built a high school in our neighborhood. i was worried because i thought kids would miss out on the experience i had. but, my brother-in-law is the band director there and he says its state-of-the-art and the students are doing well.

i don't support segregated schools because that's not the way it is in the world. but, if given the same facilities and tools as their majority-white counterparts i can't knock it.