This suburb, with its high-performing schools, seems a haven of diversity and progressiveness. Signs that trumpet “Stigma-free Town” and “Hate Has No Home Here” hang from lampposts and, after a series of fatal police shootings across the country, “Black Lives Matter” placards popped up on lawns.

But now a strategy to tackle racial inequity in the school district is challenging the town’s self-image, casting a harsh light on segregation and the stark achievement gaps between black and white students — and raising pointed questions about race and class.

Joe Biden appeared intent to follow the rules while defending himself from an onslaught from Democratic challenger Sen. Kamala Harris who attacked him on his civil rights record during Thursday night's debate, abruptly saying, “my time’s up, I’m sorry,” while giving his defense.

The former Vice President was slammed on the debate stage Thursday night, particularly by Harris who said Biden’s earlier comments about being able to work with segregationist senators early in his career were “hurtful.”

His rivals, beginning with Cory Booker and Bill de Blasio, have already started to pounce.

Everyone wants diversity. But not everyone wants it on their street.

Sixty-three years after the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, many schools across the country either remain segregated or have re-segregated.

Recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, have once again made the nation consider the durability of racial injustice as a defining factor of the American experience. Black children go to increasingly segregated schools, experience significantly less mobility than whites and are far more likely to be incarcerated for nonviolent crimes. The American dream has always been d