Looking for Justice Marshall

A recent survey conducted by the Kellogg Foundation, due out today, reveals startling conclusions about the available opportunities for children of color in their communities.  In general, these children have fewer opportunities to gain access to good health care and education, and their communities are less safe and fail to provide them with adequate support.  According to Gail Christopher, a Kellogg Foundation vice president, "you have major, major pockets of poverty in this country, many of which are tied to race."

These findings remind me of the work of Robert Coles, Jonathan Kozol and Alex Kotlowitz, among others.  These are not new findings.  Coles and Kozol, for example, have documented the destabilizing effects of race and poverty on the children of this country for well over forty years.   Yet we still find ourselves in the same place.