Maybe I'm just dumber than a box of rocks, but I don't still don't see why it is "mind-boggling" that race can't be used as a factor in integrating schools. The 14th amendment actually forbids using race as a factor in legal decisions. "Brown Vs. Board of Education" held that race could not be used as a factor in deciding who could attend a particular school. When the decision was actually implemented, it was implemented by CEASING to take race into account. If integration in 1954 meant not taking race into account, and if integration in 1970 meant not taking race into account, then it would seem likely that integration in 2007 would still mean not taking race into account.
Whether taking race into account is a good idea or a bad idea is another topic. However, the only way it COULD be taken into account would be: (1) a constitutional amendment to modify the 14th amendment or (2) a new "massive resistance", a collective decision to ignore the 14th amendment the way the Southern states did between 1954 and 1970.
Kent Davis