The Whole United States is Southern: Brown v. Board and the Mystification of Race

Payne's article actually explains a really interesting idea, and demonstrates one of the core reasons that the field of Law and Society exists at all. In his article Payne explains that many people, both at the time of the Brown v. Board decision, and now, believe(d) that the decision was the wrong way to go about ending racism. These people argue that a simple change in law cannot affect the way people think and feel about a subject, so to simply change a law in hopes of altering public opinion was wrong.

The reason I found this article most interesting was that I find myself actually torn as to what the better way is. On one hand, idealistically, of course it would be better if these thing could simply work themselves out interpersonally, and no laws were necessary to ensure justice was served. If this had been our means perhaps we wouldn't have a need for institutional policies that unfairly push opportunity for minorities in an effort to offset what has come to be seen as a natural inclination to racism. However, at the same time, this law does seem to have set things in motion, and blacks certainly meet less racism than they did 50 years ago, which is not to say that racism is gone. I guess part of me wonders though, could we have gotten here without the threat of laws?