Racial integration, or simply integration, includes
desegregation
Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...
(the process of ending systematic
racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
). In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating
equal opportunity
Equal opportunity is a state of fairness in which individuals are treated similarly, unhampered by artificial barriers, prejudices, or preferences, except when particular distinctions can be explicitly justified. The intent is that the important ...
regardless of
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
, and the development of a
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely bringing a racial minority into the
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
system, became increasingly popular in the decade after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Integration, on the other hand, Professor
Oscar Handlin
Oscar Handlin (1915–2011) was an American historian. As a professor of history at Harvard University for over 50 years, he directed 80 PhD dissertations and helped promote social and ethnic history, virtually inventing the field of immigration ...
maintains, implies several things not yet necessarily accepted in all areas of American society. In one sense it refers to the "levelling of all barriers to association other than those based on ability, taste, and personal preference";Morris J. MacGregor, Jr Integration of the Armed Forces 1940–1965 ,
United States Army Center of Military History
The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a directorate within the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. The Institute of Heraldry remains within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Arm ...
, Washington D.C. (1985). The linked copy is on the Army's official site. The Handlin quote is footnoted within the MacGregor piece as Oscar Handlin, "The Goals of Integration", ''Daedalus'' 95 (Winter 1966): 270. in other words, providing equal opportunity. But in another sense integration calls for the random distribution of a minority throughout society. Here, according to Handlin, the emphasis is on racial balance in areas of occupation, education, residency, and the like.
From the beginning the military establishment rightly understood that the breakup of the all-black unit would in a closed society necessarily mean more than mere desegregation. It constantly used the terms integration and equal treatment and opportunity to describe its racial goals. Rarely, if ever, does one find the word desegregation in military files that include much correspondence.
Similarly, Keith M. Woods writes on the need for precision in
journalistic
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
language: "''Integration'' happens when a monolith is changed, like when a black family moves into an all-white neighborhood. Integration happens even without a mandate from the law. ''Desegregation''," on the other hand, "was the legal remedy to segregation." In 1997, Henry Organ, who identified himself as "a participant in the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
on the (
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
) Peninsula in the '60s ... and ... an African American," wrote that the "term 'desegregation' is normally reserved to the legal/legislative domain, and it was the legalization of discrimination in public institutions based on race that many fought against in the 1960s. The term 'integration,' on the other hand, pertains to a social domain; it does and should refer to individuals of different background who opt to interact."
In their book ''By the Color of Our Skin'' (1999) Leonard Steinhorn and Barbara Diggs-Brown also make a similar distinction between ''desegregation'' and ''integration''. They write "... television has ... give white Americans the sensation of having meaningful, repeated contact with blacks without actually having it. We call this phenomenon virtual integration, and it is the primary reason why the integration illusion – the belief that we are moving toward a colorblind nation – has such a powerful influence on race relations in America today." Reviewing this book in the
libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
magazine ''
Reason
Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...
'', Michael W. Lynch sums up some of their conclusions as "Blacks and whites live, learn, work, pray, play, and entertain separately..." Then, he writes:
The problem, as I see it, is that access to the public spheres, specifically the commercial sphere, often depends on being comfortable with the norms of white society. If a significant number of black children aren't comfortable with them, it isn't by choice: It's because they were isolated from those norms. It's one thing for members of the black elite and upper middle class to choose to retire to predominantly black neighborhoods after a lucrative day's work in white America. It's quite another for people to be unable to enter that commercial sphere because they spent their formative years in a community that didn't, or couldn't, prepare them for it. Writes Harvard_University">/nowiki>Harvard_University_ Harvard_University">/nowiki>Harvard_University_sociology">sociologist_Orlando.html" ;"title="sociology.html" ;"title="Harvard_University.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Harvard University">/nowiki>Harvard University sociology">sociologist Orlando">sociology.html" ;"title="Harvard_University.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Harvard University">/nowiki>Harvard University sociology">sociologist OrlandoPatterson, "The greatest problem now facing African-Americans is their isolation from the tacit norms of the dominant culture, and this is true of all classes."
Distinction not universally accepted
Although widespread, the distinction between ''integration'' and ''desegregation'' is not universally accepted. For example, it is possible to find references to "court-ordered integration" from sources such as the ''
Detroit News
''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...
Detroit News
''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the ''Detroit Tribune'' on Februar ...
'', May 16, 2002. Accessed March 26, 2006.
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
, or even
Encarta
''Microsoft Encarta'' is a discontinued digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Originally sold on CD-ROM or DVD, it was also available on the World Wide Web via an annual subscription, although later articles ...
.
These same sources also use the phrase "court-ordered desegregation", apparently with exactly the same meaning;President Kennedy Expresses Outrage at Alabama Deaths (sidebar), MSN Encarta. (Premium content.) Accessed March 26, 2006. the ''Detroit News'' uses both expressions interchangeably in the same article.
When the two terms are confused, it is almost always to use ''integration'' in the narrower, more legalistic sense of ''desegregation''; one rarely, if ever, sees ''desegregation'' used in the broader cultural sense.
See also
*
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
*
Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) is an agency within the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHEO is responsible for administering and enforcing federal fair housing laws and establishing policies th ...
*
Auto-segregation Auto-segregation or self-segregation is the separation of a religious, ethnic or racial group from other groups in a country by the group itself naturally. This usually results in decreased social interactions between different ethnic, racial or re ...
*
Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...
discusses an instance of racial integration in Southern
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
.
*
Intercultural Garden
Intercultural Gardens is a project of the German Association of International Gardens (''Internationale Gärten e.V.''), resident in Göttingen. The project has the goal to further intercultural competence and racial integration.
Ideas and goals ...
*
Online segregation
Online segregation is the unintentional segregation of people on the Internet, which is often believed to be a democratizing tool used to bring equality among people. For example, popular social network services such as MySpace and Facebook have ...
*
Anti-discrimination law
Anti-discrimination law or non-discrimination law refers to legislation designed to prevent discrimination against particular groups of people; these groups are often referred to as protected groups or protected classes. Anti-discrimination laws ...
* Steinhorn, Leonard and Diggs-Brown, Barbara, ''By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race''. New York: Dutton, 1999.
*Themstrom, Stephan and Abigail, ''America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible'' New York, NY: Touchstone, 1997. .
*Adel Iskandar and Hakem Rustom From Paris to Cairo: Resistance of the Unacculturated ''The Ambassadors'' online magazine.
*Hong, Dorothy "Tales from a Korean Maiden in America" (iUniverse, 2003)