{"id":344,"date":"2024-02-01T21:22:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T02:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/?p=344"},"modified":"2024-02-05T23:54:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T04:54:06","slug":"brown-v-board-of-education-and-the-interest-convergence-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/2024\/02\/01\/brown-v-board-of-education-and-the-interest-convergence-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, Bell outlines the concept of interest convergence, an idea that has since become vital to Critical Race Theory, through an analysis of the <em>Brown v. Board of Education<\/em> decision. Interest convergence has proven to be a useful tool in understanding how historical racial reforms are achieved. Here, Bell argues that, though popular discourses of American history present the Brown decision as motivated by moral and political convictions, it can be better understood as a result of intersecting practical considerations. Bell compares the circumstances of the case to similar preceding cases challenging school segregation. In those previous instances, the courts ruled not to end segregation in schooling, but to improve the standards of segregated schooling, to meet the standards of the \u201cseparate but equal\u201d doctrine. What, Bell asks, makes <em>Brown<\/em> different? Interest convergence answers this question.<\/p>\n<p>The outcome of <em>Brown v. Board of Education<\/em> was the result of a convergence of racial interests with a number of interests for the dominant class, domestically and abroad. Agitation was growing within the Black American population, many of whom had contributed to the nation\u2019s success in World War II, and many of whom were increasingly dissatisfied with a continued lack of progress in racial reform. The dominant class faced a threat of civil unrest; more importantly, they risked the growth of communist sympathies within the United States. Abroad, claims of political freedom from the US, contrasted with continued segregation, threatened America\u2019s international reputation, a particularly valuable resource given the ongoing Cold War with the USSR. Finally, as the post-war economy was booming, segregation (like enslavement before it) stood in the way of urbanization and industrialization, in the South in particular. As a result of the intersection of these social, political, and economic interests, it became more costly for the dominant class to maintain segregation than it would be to gradually abolish it.<\/p>\n<p>Applied to other historical instances of racial reform, interest convergence is similarly useful. What, for example, could an application of interest convergence explain about the Emancipation Proclamation, the Fourteenth Amendment, or even the success of Barrack Obama\u2019s 2008 presidential campaign? Moreover, interest convergence is valuable as a tool through which to imagine how contemporary and future movements towards Black liberation may find success. While interest convergence theory emphasizes the agency of the dominant class in the movements of history, it also emphasizes the ways in which the agency of marginalized classes can bring about change. The threat of social unrest, or even insurrection, can impact the cost-benefit analysis employed by the dominant class; at times, this impact is enough to precipitate meaningful reform.<\/p>\n<p>Paying attention to the changing interests and circumstances of the dominant class can be a legitimate strategy for Black liberation movements, as tracking these changes, like tracking the weather, might be informative concerning when particular political strategies may be the most effective. As Bell notes, \u201cFurther progress to fulfill the mandate of Brown is possible to the extent that the divergence of racial interests can be avoided or minimized\u201d (Bell 528). If the actions of liberatory movements can take advantage of moments of convergence, as well as divergence, the political landscape of the United States could be strategically altered, reformed, or, even, radically reimagined.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>(Point of clarification: when I note that interest convergence can be usefully applied in pursuit of liberation, I am not arguing for making appeals to white moderates, or for tactics of respectability and collaboration regarding dominant political classes. What I am trying to argue is that the actions of radical movements can change the cost-benefit analysis that the dominant class engages in, in pursuit of its interests. For example, the outcome of\u00a0<em>Brown<\/em> was meaningfully influenced by the threat of domestic unrest. Likewise, the Haitian Revolution succeeded in part because the acts of revolutionaries made it too costly for France or any other imperial power to try to directly reassert enslavement on the Haitian people.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, Bell outlines the concept of interest convergence, an idea that has since become vital to Critical Race Theory, through an analysis of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Interest convergence has proven to be a useful &#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/2024\/02\/01\/brown-v-board-of-education-and-the-interest-convergence-dilemma\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/criticalracetheory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}