Racial Integration Ruined My School

This story is one of hundreds Colin Flaherty planned to publish in a book before his death. American Renaissance will post one a week.

I was the only Jewish kid in a white, Asian, and Hispanic school in Washington state in the 1970s. Then one day, blacks were bussed in. These were the first black people I ever knew. During the first week of this new integration, the black kid sitting in front of me suddenly turned around and accused me of writing on his jacket. Then he hit me hard in the face. My nose was broken and bleeding. It is still crooked to this day, and causes me breathing difficulties. The teacher didn’t even take me to the nurse. I wonder why. I don’t think my assailant was ever punished.

These new arrivals forever changed the atmosphere of my school. The biggest fault line became the rivalry between the German-Scandinavians and the blacks. Classrooms were chaotic and learning became intermittent. Eventually, the Hispanics, too, started operating as a cohesive — and aggressive — group. The next year was a year of terror, ridicule, threats, beatings, and avoiding gangs of all colors. I dropped out at the earliest legal age. My older sister dropped out at the same time, a grade ahead of me. As far as I am concerned, racial integration ruined the school.