In Milwaukee the public school board announced it would designate two schools in primary black neighborhoods to emphasize Afro-American culture and downplay Western history and cluture.

The high school graduation rate of blacks in Milwaukee is deplorable, and any attempt to change this trend by encouraging a sense of pride and importance should be welcomed.

The problem with this approach is the precedent it sets and the belief it’s based on. Some members of the white and black community could argue all blacks should be kept separate and taught this way.

The problem is this idea paradoxically denies the equality of black people, belittles their culture and encourages discrimination.

The effort to mold blacks through a purely African culture and outlook will not make a better America; it will create one in which the black and white people are much more polarized and hostile.

Living in a segregated society has always been accompanied by discrimination for black people here. There is nothing wrong with black neighborhoods developing a sense of community and common goals.

What must not be forgotten is communities like Cicero and many others still discourage integration today, thus keeping black communities together partly through the forces of racism. It would be a bitter irony if black people today forgot the past and embraced separation as a desired end.

The strongest argument against social integration from some black people is it will lead to the disappearance of black culture and strain the natural cultural ties black people in this country have with Africa. While not wholly false, this statement is denigrating and seriously distorts Afro-American culture.

Actually, the cultural ties black Americans have with Africa are based on the mistaken notion that races have some sort of common “mindset.”

Black leaders often speak and write about changes needed in society using terms like “self-empowerment,” “self-determination,” “economic equality” and “racial unity.”

While these are certainly noble goals, the ideas are not African in nature but straight out of Western Culture 101. The simple truth is black American culture is much closer to white American cluture than to any in Africa.

Black segregationalists are probably right in saying futher integration would lead to the loss of a “purely” black culture. What is not clear is why they think their culture would be replaced by white culture.

In fields like the arts, where blacks have gained a greater measure of equality than elsewhere, black culture has been a major, if not the dominant influence in this country.

It seems more likely further integration and equality will create a common American culture in which black culture is a strong component.

Twenty years ago this was the goal of the civil rights movement. The Milwaukee public school system represents nothing more than an admission of failure that it is better to make do with our racial double standard instead of carrying on the struggle. In 1954 our Supreme Court realized the powerful truth that separation is an inherently unequal condition. Have we forgotten so soon?