Desegregation created a double bind by trading communal bonds for competitive individualism
Evidence
While segregation resulted in systematic inferiorization as we have pointed out, it also forced the creation of important social bonds among the people based on strong values of mutuality and interdependence. Desegregation opened the doors to competition and individualism—every man for himself—creating an important double bind in the African American experience. Any situation denying people the right to decent housing, satisfying work, and a good education should of course be challenged as this movement did. Yet, the real problem— a culture steeped in naturalized “supremacy” and hierarchy—was not necessarily challenged. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1187
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: A supple, genuinely surprising historical judgment — that desegregation both advanced and undercut African American community — that resists easy moral summary.
- XREF: Deploys the book’s core individualism critique (ch11, ch12) against a sacred civil-rights victory; connects to ecojustice critique of hyper-individualism. — connects to: Voluntary local desegregation produced tokenism and arbitrary exclusion rather than integration. — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 481; Dominants adopt individualism as a new defense when group-based hierarchy is challenged — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 674; Individualism becomes a defense of the status quo by delegitimizing group-based demands (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- The ordoliberal Ordo concept legitimized a hierarchical social order as natural and irrevocable
#exemplifies(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 510 - Individualism becomes a defense of the status quo by delegitimizing group-based demands
#expands(0.80) - Dominants adopt individualism rhetoric once paternalism’s group order is challenged
#expands(0.80) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 674 - Voluntary local desegregation produced tokenism and arbitrary exclusion rather than integration.
#complicates(0.75) — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight, 481 - Dominants adopt individualism as a new defense when group-based hierarchy is challenged
#qualifies(0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 674