'Bussing' Pupils Limits Freedom, Lakoff Maintains

Parents should not be legally coerced to utilise the "bussing" method of school integration, Sanford A. Lakoff, assistant professor of Government, said yesterday.

"The expanded opportunities for Negroes aren't apparent enough to enforce bussing," Lakoff said in an informal lecture at Hillel House.

To the contrary, demanding that children be sent out of their school district infringes on parents' personal freedom. They may have chosen their neighborhood specifically for its educational advantages, he said, and it is questionable whether they should be forced to send their children to a distant school.

Lakoff did approve other civil rights measures, however. He explained that the argument which declares "you can't legislate morality" is fairly weak, especially in view of traditional child labor, prostitution, and health and building laws. The "moral issue of ethnic segregation" is certainly as important as these, Lakoff said.

Turning to another aspect of the civil rights movement, Lakoff attacked as a "species of Negro and general radicalism" those people who have recently come to denounce the white liberal. "I'm not at all ashamed to call myself a white liberal," he added.

Name-Calling an Indulgence

It is the individuals who are not in positions of responsibility who indulge in name-calling of this nature, Lakoff said. He added that this is particularly unfortunate because Congress needs public support, and attacks on the white liberal only increase the indifference of the American people.

Lakoff also criticized Negroes such as the Black Muslims for their "utopian fantasies." They want "utopia now rather than a change in their position in real life," he said.

Lakoff also noted that the interstate commerce regulations have been used "so many ways that it's beginning to look sort of fishy." Of course, "it would be better if we could just use the Bill of Rights" as an effective tool, he added.