Parental opposition to busing rests on fears of lost control, not safety

Evidence

Much controversy followed the forced busing, leading to protest demonstrations and white flight. Many opponents of busing have tried to justify their objections on nonracial grounds by claiming that busing harms education, causes great inconvenience to students and parents, and violates the integrity of neighborhoods (Rossell, 15). Parents fear busing even though it is two times safer than walking to school and most children enjoy the actual experience of riding the bus. The fear of the parents stems from sending their child to an unknown school where they may be harassed and the parents have no political control. They are also bothered by the notion of sending their child on a long bus ride to a school that offers no benefits over their own neighborhood school that is just around the corner (Mazarella, 3). — Marcy Crouch, Magnet Schools and Other Means of…, 21

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s article on moral panics over dress as identity signaling — here the stated nonracial justifications (education quality, neighborhood integrity) mask status and control anxieties. — connects to: Antibusing activists were civic suburban parents, not ideologues — Matthew D. Lassiter, The Suburban Origins of “Color-Blind”…, 33
• SEED: Angle: the gap between stated objections and actual motives in policy fights, showing how ‘nonracial grounds’ become the universal rhetorical cover for status defense.