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�Draft, 2:30 p.m., 6/7/97
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
RECONCILIATION
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT SAN DIEGO
JUNE 14, 1997
[following acknowledgments, etc.]
Thank you for inviting me here today and thank you for offering our nation a shining
example of diversity and strength. UCSD looks like America -- with whites, Asian-Americans,
Latinos, African Americans and Native Americans all learning and living side by side. You have
produced 12 Nobel Laureates, bom in 9 different countries. You're so diverse, you even have a
surfing doctor on your faculty. Your diversity, along with your excellence in science and
technology, and your emphasis on the Pacific Rim and Latin America, make you one of the most
forward looking universities in the nation.
I have come here today to set out the work that we must do as a people — and that you
must take on as your mission ~ to guarantee America's prosperity, freedom and future, but most
of all, to ensure that in the next century, we will be the greatest multi-racial, multi-ethnic
democracy the world has ever known. The great civil rights scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois, said
almost one hundred years ago that race would be the number-one problem of the 20th century.
In many ways, he was right. We cannot allow that ugly history to play out again. Our challenge
now is to tum a potential problem into our best advantage and our greatest strength in the 21st
century. And we can only do this if we are willing to leam from each other, talk to each other
and take action.
In that new century, beginning less than 30 months from now, you will make your
careers, raise your families, and leave your mark. It will be a century very different than that of
your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. In their century, America established its
greatness and world leadership as a democracy, amid the turmoil of a Depression, two World
Wars and a cold war.
Because of the hard work of the generations before you, we enter the next century as the
world's only superpower, free from the threat of nuclear war, at peace with the world and with a
robust and growing economy. That could make us believe that we have overcome the greatest
challenges, and that the hard work is done. But the hard work of democracy is never done. It is
a process that demands that we never rest in trying to live up to our ideals. That never-ending
effort is the wellspring of our strength.
At the end of this century, we have positioned ourselves well. We have put in place the
tools to help all our people enjoy thefreedom,equality and opportunity that is America's
promise. When I first became President I said I had three great goals to prepare America for the
�new century. I wanted to create a country where the American Dream of opportunity was alive
for all Americans, where America was coming together as a responsible community, not being
divided, and where we continued to be the world's leading force for peace and freedom.
In the last four-and-a-half years, we have made progress. Unemployment is at 4.8%, the
lowest level in 24 years. Our economy has created more than 12 million new jobs. Business is
booming and this state's economy has turned around.
Our society is also becoming more cohesive. We had the biggest drop in crime in 36
years last year. We are seeing an historic drop in the welfare rolls and we putting in place an
effective welfare to work strategy.
We have made significant progress in reconciling our differences as a society.
Republicans and Democrats are finding common ground on issues like the budget. We are
reconciling our religious differences with measures like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
and in bringing together the religious community ~ Christians, Muslims, Jews and others — in
seeking solutions.
We have made all this progress, but there is one thing that could hold us back — racial
and ethnic divisions. Nothing can hold us back more than these divisions; nothing can give us
more strength than if we come together.
Our first step must be to acknowledge that in the 21st century, America will not look as it
does today. We are already very diverse. Right now, there are more Jews in the City of New
York than in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv combined. There are more Irish in the state of
Massachusetts than in Dublin; more Italians in New York City than in Palermo, Venice, Florence
and Genoa. And in the future, we are going to be more multiracial and mutlticultural than ever
before. One-half century from now, about the time you'll be retiring and your own grandchildren
will be in college, whites who are not Hispanic will be a bare majority. One out of every four
people will be Latino. And it is entirely conceivable that African Americans, Hispanics, Asian
Americans, Native Americans and other people of color will combine to form a new American
plurality.
Within the next three years, right here in California, no single race or ethnic group will
make up as much as half the state's population. There are now five school districts in this
country where more than 100 languages are spoken by students. And the demand by newcomers
to leam English is so great that some cities are conducting 'round the clock English as a second
language classes and still the demand cannot be met.
It is clear, the face of America is evolving. And, I will tell you, we cannot greet that fact
with indifference; we cannot run away from it; we cannot retreat into racial and ethnic enclaves
of isolation. And we cannot pretend that the changing face of America is invisible. We must
look in the mirror and ask the question anew: What does it mean to be an American? Do we
�decide who is an American by where they were bom? Do we decide who is an American by how
they talk? Or by the music they enjoy or the books they read? Do we decide who is an
American by the color of their skin? No, we do not.
To answer that question, we must do two things simultaneously: First, we must honor and
celebrate our diversity. And second, we must unite around a common creed and set of values.
The mistake we make is skipping step one and going straight to step two. Justice Blackmon once
said, "In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race." So, we must do a better
job of respecting and seeing the value in our racial and ethnic diversity. That means getting rid
of the myths and stereotypes we hold about each other. Different groups in America at various
times, have been labeled, ridiculed and mistreated. That is wrong. And it helps to explain why
some groups have created their own subculture apart from the mainstream. In some cases this
has been used to bolster wounded self esteem. But in other cases it has taken on the self
destructive form of gangs and angry alienation. That is wrong too and it is not the kind of
America that we want to leave to our children.
But along with respecting diversity, we must unite around a common creed. Being an
American means accepting that we are not a nation united by a single race, or a single religion or
even a single history. The only thing that unites us is our belief in the founding ideals that have
always guided us. The vision stated in Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our Declaration of
Independence are the best models ever created by humankind for a fair, just and free society.
Being an American means always trying to live up to those ideals. We have not always done that
well, but we have never stopped trying and our people, even those who have suffered the most,
have never lost faith that these ideals would produce a better day.
And with conviction, hard work and sacrifice, a better day does come. Your own
Chancellor, xxx, was a freedom rider in the South during the 60s, part of the movement that
fought for the civil rights of African Americans. I saw first hand how black citizens were denied
basic rights. I was 11 years old when President Eisenhower ordered troops into Little Rock so
that 9 black children could integrate Central High. When I was growing up, schools weren't the
only segregated places in America -- so were restaurants, drinking fountains, public bathrooms,
and movie theaters. We passed laws to end all that. And still, when I was a high school senior
and attending Boys Nation in Washington, DC, in 1963,1 was one of only 3 boys who voted in
support of civil rights -- because the tide had not yet changed. And when I was your age and in
school in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King was killed and the streets exploded in flames. I
will never forget the pain and anger I saw.
It was after Dr. King's assassination that the Kemer Commission was formed. And it
concluded that we were two nations, one black, one white, separate and unequal. Now, three
decades later, we are at risk of becoming many nations -- closer together in our lives perhaps, but
still too far apart in our hearts.
The Kemer Commission was formed in a time of crisis. We don't have a crisis in our
�streets right now, but we still have problems. There are obvious differences of opinion about
how the criminal justice operates in this country. There are still disparities in educational
attainment, in access to health care. And there are still pockets in America that have not
benefited from the extraordinary prosperity our country enjoys.
And sadly, prejudice is still a fact of life in America. We see it everyday: The inability of
a black man to hail a cab after dark downtown. The indignity of a Latina being followed around
in a department store. The resentment toward Asian Americans who achieve. The assumption
that someone who is poor and white is also not intelligent. Job and housing discrimination. And
the insidious stereotypes we hold about each other and that are so often reinforced in the news
media and our popular culture. So, while we don't have a crisis in our streets, our behavior and
our attitudes speak to another kind of crisis, a crisis of conscience.
The divisions that all these things reinforce on a daily basis have a volatile potential. If
you want to see examples of where unhealed divisions can lead, just look around the world:
Chiapas, Chechnya, Rwanda. It is also the root of conflict in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, even next
door in Canada. It falls to us to make sure this can never happen in America.
And it won't if we stop building walls and begin building pathways to greater
understanding.
We did not understand 30 years ago, what we are beginning to understand now: diversity
has always been America's great strength. During World War II, Navajo Code Talkers devised
an unbreakable code based on their language that was used by the Marines to confound the
enemy. Venice High School in Venice, California, won the 1997 Science Bowl, competing
against the best high schools in the country. Venice High School is 67% Latino, 15% African
America, 8% white and 5% Asian American. Black, Hispanic and Asian American astronauts
are helping us explore the heavens alongside their counterparts from around the world. We send
the most diverse teams to the Olympics and bring home the most medals. Our armed forces are
the best in the world, and they are also the most diverse. Our best corporations use diversity in
their hiring and marketing to sell more of their products.
And I will tell you why diversity is so important at UCSD. You are producing the
doctors, the teachers, the lawyers, and other professionals who are so desperately needed in many
minority communities. These men and women are doing more than providing professional
services — they are role models for young people who need to know that they too can succeed.
I was happy to see that one of the schools on this campus is named after Thurgood
Marshall. It was 30 years ago yesterday that Justice Marshall became the first African American
to serve on the Supreme Court. I am proud that his son, Thurgood Marshall, Jr., is a member of
my staff. Thurgood Marshall, Sr., ended segregation in America's schools by winning a case
called Brown vs the Board of Education in 1954. That ruling rejected the notion of "separate but
equal," and the years have shown us that it was the right thing to do. Today, we are in danger of
�exhuming that failed policy from its grave with the elimination of affirmative action in higher
education here in California and in Texas.
Proposition 209 is a bad deal for America. Just look at what it is doing to graduate school
admission here in California. Last year there were 78 Latinos in the entering class at UC
Berkeley Law School. This year half that number -- 39 were admitted. Last year there were 75
African Americans in that same class -- this year only 14. The same thing is happening in Texas
as result of the Hopwood case.
The chilling effect of all this is that bright students of color are beginning to feel
unwelcome and won't even apply. This is appalling. At a time when we should be opening the
doors of education to more and more of our citizens, those doors are being closed. This
wholesale retreat from affirmative action education is threatening to keep out those who have
historically been excluded. It is a real mistake to think that we can build the kind of future we
want, if minorities don't have access to educational opportunity or if we resegregate higher
education. Measures like 209 are setting us back. So, how do we move forward?
The first step is to protect the progress that we have made, and not let it be rolled back.
And then to examine where more change is needed, so that our policies match our words.
But we must do something more. And it may sound simple, but it is not. The next step is
to talk. We have talked at each other and about each other. It is high time we begin talking with
each other. We need a great national conversation about race and diversity to acknowledge
frankly those things that divide us.
I want to begin an examination of where we are and where we are headed — to take a look
at how our evolving diversity is affecting our cities, our schools, our housing, health care, the
administration of justice, jobs and our economy.
I am announcing today, that I am appointing an advisory board of distinguished
Americans, led by this century's preeminent racial scholar, John Hope Franklin. This advisory
board will advise me as we engage the American people in a year-long dialogue to take stock of
the changing face of America and develop recommendations to achieve racial and ethnic
reconciliation. To augment the work of this advisory board, I will conduct four national town
hall meetings and other activities across the country.
This will not be another commission, issuing another report. This time, the President will
lead the effort. This time, the panel recruit local leaders to engage their communities in this great
national dialogue. This time, it will be the responsibility of the President to report to the nation
in about one year's time.
I know that honest dialogue will not be easy at first. It may open wounds, but that is how
we begin the healing so that we may move past them and live in unity.
�Let's start with the truth. To whites, I say, do not pretend there is no prejudice. We wil
never get beyond this problem, unless we first acknowledge its existence.
To the grandchildren of European immigrants: Do not pull up the ladder from the new
immigrants who come here for the same reason and with the same values as your ancestors.
To minorities, especially young black and Hispanic men and women: Do not let real or
magined racism cause you to retreat into enclaves of anger and isolation.
And to all Americans; do not use race or racism as an excuse for lawlessness, hatred or
self-destruction. It is not racist to insist that our immigration laws be obeyed. Racism cannot
explain black on black crime any more than it can explain white on white crime.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we propose nothing but policy ideas that are merely small gestures along the way, that
will be too little. But if 10 years from now, people can look back and see that America's
commitment to our ideals was renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King
generation finally shouldered its fair burden in this historic struggle, then this effort will have
been a success.
I believe strongly that America's best days lie ahead. We have what it takes to be the
greatest multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy the world has ever known - a
place where differences are not merely tolerated, but celebrated.
Let us remember where America started, how far we have come, and let us never forget
how much farther we must go. Much of the burden ~ and all the benefits - will lie with you and
the generations to come. We must look forward to the day when race and ethnicity are not
America's constant obsession ~ when the color of the skin is no more important than the color of
your hair. We must recommit ourselves to our long national journey to become One America.
Thank you, God bless you and Godspeed.
�Draft, 2:30 p.m., 6/7/97
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
RECONCILIATION
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT SAN DIEGO
JUNE 14, 1997
[following acknowledgments, etc.]
Thank you for inviting me here today and thank you for offering our nation a shining
example of diversity and strength. UCSD looks like America ~ with whites, Asian-Americans,
Latinos, African Americans and Native Americans all learning and living side by side. You have
produced 12 Nobel Laureates, bom in 9 different countries. You're so diverse, you even have a
surfing doctor on your faculty. Your diversity, along with your excellence in science and
technology, and your emphasis on the Pacific Rim and Latin America, make you one of the most
forward looking universities in the nation.
I have come here today to set out the work that we must do as a people — and that you
must take on as your mission — to guarantee America's prosperity, freedom and future, but most
of all, to ensure that in the next century, we will be the greatest multi-racial, multi-ethnic
democracy the world has ever known. The great civil rights scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois, said
almost one hundred years ago that race would be the number-one problem of the 20th century.
In many ways, he was right. We cannot allow that ugly history to play out again. Our challenge
now is to tum a potential problem into our best advantage and our greatest strength in the 21st
century. And we can only do this if we are willing to leam from each other, talk to each other
and take action.
In that new century, beginning less than 30 months from now, you will make your
careers, raise your families, and leave your mark. It will be a century very different than that of
your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. In their century, America established its
greatness and world leadership as a democracy, amid the turmoil of a Depression, two World
Wars and a cold war.
Because of the hard work of the generations before you, we enter the next century as the
world's only superpower, free from the threat of nuclear war, at peace with the world and with a
robust and growing economy. That could make us believe that we have overcome the greatest
challenges, and that the hard work is done. But the hard work of democracy is never done. It is
a process that demands that we never rest in trying to live up to our ideals. That never-ending
effort is the wellspring of our strength.
At the end of this century, we have positioned ourselves well. We have put in place the
tools to help all our people enjoy thefreedom,equality and opportunity that is America's
promise. When I first became President I said I had three great goals to prepare America for the
�new century. I wanted to create a country where the American Dream of opportunity was alive
for all Americans, where America was coming together as a responsible community, not being
divided, and where we continued to be the world's leading force for peace and freedom.
In the last four-and-a-half years, we have made progress. Unemployment is at 4.8%, the
lowest level in 24 years. Our economy has created more than 12 million new jobs. Business is
booming and this state's economy has turned around.
Our society is also becoming more cohesive. We had the biggest drop in crime in 36
years last year. We are seeing an historic drop in the welfare rolls and we putting in place an
effective welfare to work strategy.
We have made significant progress in reconciling our differences as a society.
Republicans and Democrats are finding common ground on issues like the budget. We are
reconciling our religious differences with measures like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
and in bringing together the religious community ~ Christians, Muslims, Jews and others — in
seeking solutions.
We have made all this progress, but there is one thing that could hold us back - racial
and ethnic divisions. Nothing can hold us back more than these divisions; nothing can give us
more strength than if we come together.
Our first step must be to acknowledge that in the 21st century, America will not look as it
does today. We are already very diverse. Right now, there are more Jews in the City of New
York than in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv combined. There are more Irish in the state of
Massachusetts than in Dublin; more Italians in New York City than in Palermo, Venice, Florence
and Genoa. And in the future, we are going to be more multiracial and mutlticultural than ever
before. One-half century from now, about the time you'll be retiring and your own grandchildren
will be in college, whites who are not Hispanic will be a bare majority. One out of every four
people will be Latino. And it is entirely conceivable that African Americans, Hispanics, Asian
Americans, Native Americans and other people of color will combine to form a new American
plurality.
Within the next three years, right here in California, no single race or ethnic group will
make up as much as half the state's population. There are now five school districts in this
country where more than 100 languages are spoken by students. And the demand by newcomers
to leam English is so great that some cities are conducting 'round the clock English as a second
language classes and still the demand cannot be met.
It is clear, the face of America is evolving. And, I will tell you, we cannot greet that fact
with indifference; we cannot run away from it; we cannot retreat into racial and ethnic enclaves
of isolation. And we cannot pretend that the changing face of America is invisible. We must
look in the mirror and ask the question anew: What does it mean to be an American? Do we
�decide who is an American by where they were bom? Do we decide who is an American by how
they talk? Or by the music they enjoy or the books they read? Do we decide who is an
American by the color of their skin? No, we do not.
To answer that question, we must do two things simultaneously: First, we must honor and
celebrate our diversity. And second, we must unite around a common creed and set of values.
The mistake we make is skipping step one and going straight to step two. Justice Blackmon once
said, "In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race." So, we must do a better
job of respecting and seeing the value in our racial and ethnic diversity. That means getting rid
of the myths and stereotypes we hold about each other. Different groups in America at various
times, have been labeled, ridiculed and mistreated. That is wrong. And it helps to explain why
some groups have created their own subculture apart from the mainstream. In some cases this
has been used to bolster wounded self esteem. But in other cases it has taken on the self
destructive form of gangs and angry alienation. That is wrong too and it is not the kind of
America that we want to leave to our children.
But along with respecting diversity, we must unite around a common creed. Being an
American means accepting that we are not a nation united by a single race, or a single religion or
even a single history. The only thing that unites us is our belief in the founding ideals that have
always guided us. The vision stated in Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our Declaration of
Independence are the best models ever created by humankind for a fair, just and free society.
Being an American means always trying to live up to those ideals. We have not always done that
well, but we have never stopped trying and our people, even those who have suffered the most,
have never lost faith that these ideals would produce a better day.
And with conviction, hard work and sacrifice, a better day does come. Your own
Chancellor, xxx, was a freedom rider in the South during the 60s, part of the movement that
fought for the civil rights of African Americans. I saw first hand how black citizens were denied
basic rights. I was 11 years old when President Eisenhower ordered troops into Little Rock so
that 9 black children could integrate Central High. When I was growing up, schools weren't the
only segregated places in America — so were restaurants, drinking fountains, public bathrooms,
and movie theaters. We passed laws to end all that. And still, when I was a high school senior
and attending Boys Nation in Washington, DC, in 1963,1 was one of only 3 boys who voted in
support of civil rights — because the tide had not yet changed. And when I was your age and in
school in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King was killed and the streets exploded inflames.I
will never forget the pain and anger I saw.
It was after Dr. King's assassination that the Kemer Commission was formed. And it
concluded that we were two nations, one black, one white, separate and unequal. Now, three
decades later, we are at risk of becoming many nations - closer together in our lives perhaps, but
still too far apart in our hearts.
The Kemer Commission was formed in a time of crisis. We don't have a crisis in our
�streets right now, but we still have problems. There are obvious differences of opinion about
how the criminal justice operates in this country. There are still disparities in educational
attainment, in access to health care. And there are still pockets in America that have not
benefited from the extraordinary prosperity our country enjoys.
And sadly, prejudice is still a fact of life in America. We see it everyday: The inability of
a black man to hail a cab after dark downtown. The indignity of a Latina being followed around
in a department store. The resentment toward Asian Americans who achieve. The assumption
that someone who is poor and white is also not intelligent. Job and housing discrimination. And
the insidious stereotypes we hold about each other and that are so often reinforced in the news
media and our popular culture. So, while we don't have a crisis in our streets, our behavior and
our attitudes speak to another kind of crisis, a crisis of conscience.
The divisions that all these things reinforce on a daily basis have a volatile potential. If
you want to see examples of where unhealed divisions can lead, just look around the world:
Chiapas, Chechnya, Rwanda. It is also the root of conflict in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, even next
door in Canada. It falls to us to make sure this can never happen in America.
And it won't if we stop building walls and begin building pathways to greater
understanding.
We did not understand 30 years ago, what we are beginning to understand now: diversity
has always been America's great strength. During World War II, Navajo Code Talkers devised
an unbreakable code based on their language that was used by the Marines to confound the
enemy. Venice High School in Venice, California, won the 1997 Science Bowl, competing
against the best high schools in the country. Venice High School is 67% Latino, 15% African
America, 8% white and 5% Asian American. Black, Hispanic and Asian American astronauts
are helping us explore the heavens alongside their counterparts from around the world. We send
the most diverse teams to the Olympics and bring home the most medals. Our armed forces are
the best in the world, and they are also the most diverse. Our best corporations use diversity in
their hiring and marketing to sell more of their products.
And I will tell you why diversity is so important at UCSD. You are producing the
doctors, the teachers, the lawyers, and other professionals who are so desperately needed in many
minority communities. These men and women are doing more than providing professional
services — they are role models for young people who need to know that they too can succeed.
I was happy to see that one of the schools on this campus is named after Thurgood
Marshall. It was 30 years ago yesterday that Justice Marshall became the first African American
to serve on the Supreme Court. I am proud that his son, Thurgood Marshall, Jr., is a member of
my staff. Thurgood Marshall, Sr., ended segregation in America's schools by winning a case
called Brown vs the Board of Education in 1954. That ruling rejected the notion of "separate but
equal," and the years have shown us that it was the right thing to do. Today, we are in danger of
�exhuming that failed policy from its grave with the elimination of affirmative action in higher
education here in California and in Texas.
Proposition 209 is a bad deal for America. Just look at what it is doing to graduate school
admission here in California. Last year there were 78 Latinos in the entering class at UC
Berkeley Law School. This year half that number -- 39 were admitted. Last year there were 75
African Americans in that same class - this year only 14. The same thing is happening in Texas
as result of the Hopwood case.
The chilling effect of all this is that bright students of color are beginning to feel
unwelcome and won't even apply. This is appalling. At a time when we should be opening the
doors of education to more and more of our citizens, those doors are being closed. This
wholesale retreat from affirmative action education is threatening to keep out those who have
historically been excluded. It is a real mistake to think that we can build the kind of future we
want, if minorities don't have access to educational opportunity or if we resegregate higher
education. Measures like 209 are setting us back. So, how do we move forward?
The first step is to protect the progress that we have made, and not let it be rolled back.
And then to examine where more change is needed, so that our policies match our words.
But we must do something more. And it may sound simple, but it is not. The next step is
to talk. We have talked at each other and about each other. It is high time we begin talking with
each other. We need a great national conversation about race and diversity to acknowledge
frankly those things that divide us.
I want to begin an examination of where we are and where we are headed — to take a look
at how our evolving diversity is affecting our cities, our schools, our housing, health care, the
administration of justice, jobs and our economy.
I am announcing today, that I am appointing an advisory board of distinguished
Americans, led by this century's preeminent racial scholar, John Hope Franklin. This advisory
board will advise me as we engage the American people in a year-long dialogue to take stock of
the changing face of America and develop recommendations to achieve racial and ethnic
reconciliation. To augment the work of this advisory board, I will conduct four national town
hall meetings and other activities across the country.
This will not be another commission, issuing another report. This time, the President will
lead the effort. This time, the panel recruit local leaders to engage their communities in this great
national dialogue. This time, it will be the responsibility of the President to report to the nation
in about one year's time.
I know that honest dialogue will not be easy at first. It may open wounds, but thafis how
we begin the healing so that we may move past them and live in unity.
�Let's start with the truth. To whites, I say, do not pretend there is no prejudice. We will
never get beyond this problem, unless we first acknowledge its existence.
To the grandchildren of European immigrants: Do not pull up the ladder from the new
immigrants who come here for the same reason and with the same values as your ancestors.
To minorities, especially young black and Hispanic men and women: Do not let real or
imagined racism cause you to retreat into enclaves of anger and isolation.
And to all Americans; do not use race or racism as an excuse for lawlessness, hatred or
self-destruction. It is not racist to insist that our immigration laws be obeyed. Racism cannot
explain black on black crime any more than it can explain white on white crime.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we propose nothing but policy ideas that are merely small gestures along the way, that
will be too little. But if 10 years from now, people can look back and see that America's
commitment to our ideals was renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King
generation finally shouldered its fair burden in this historic struggle, then this effort will have
been a success.
I believe strongly that America's best days lie ahead. We have what it takes to be the
greatest multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy the world has ever known - a
place where differences are not merely tolerated, but celebrated.
Let us remember where America started, how far we have come, and let us never forget
how much farther we must go. Much of the burden — and all the benefits ~ will lie with you and
the generations to come. We must look forward to the day when race and ethnicity are not
America's constant obsession - when the color of the skin is no more important than the color of
your hair. We must recommit ourselves to our long national journey to become One America.
Thank you, God bless you and Godspeed.
�Draft, 2:30 p.m., 6/7/97
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
RECONCILIATION
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT SAN DIEGO
JUNE 14, 1997
[following acknowledgments, etc.]
Thank you for inviting me here today and thank you for offering our nation a shining
example of diversity and strength. UCSD looks like America ~ with whites, Asian-Americans,
Latinos, African Americans and Native Americans all learning and living side by side. You have
produced 12 Nobel Laureates, bom in 9 different countries. You're so diverse, you even have a
surfing doctor on your faculty. Your diversity, along with your excellence in science and
technology, and your emphasis on the Pacific Rim and Latin America, make you one of the most
forward looking universities in the nation.
I have come here today to set out the work that we must do as a people — and that you
must take on as your mission — to guarantee America's prosperity, freedom and future, but most
of all, to ensure that in the next century, we will be the greatest multi-racial, multi-ethnic
democracy the world has ever known. The great civil rights scholar, W.E.B. Du Bois, said
almost one hundred years ago that race would be the number-one problem of the 20th century.
In many ways, he was right. We cannot allow that ugly history to play out again. Our challenge
now is to tum a potential problem into our best advantage and our greatest strength in the 21 st
century. And we can only do this if we are willing to leam from each other, talk to each other
and take action.
In that new century, beginning less than 30 months from now, you will make your
careers, raise your families, and leave your mark. It will be a century very different than that of
your parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. In their century, America established its
greatness and world leadership as a democracy, amid the turmoil of a Depression, two World
Wars and a cold war.
Because of the hard work of the generations before you, we enter the next century as the
world's only superpower, free from the threat of nuclear war, at peace with the world and with a
robust and growing economy. That could make us believe that we have overcome the greatest
challenges, and that the hard work is done. But the hard work of democracy is never done. It is
a process that demands that we never rest in trying to live up to our ideals. That never-ending
effort is the wellspring of our strength.
At the end of this century, we have positioned ourselves well. We have put in place the
tools to help all our people enjoy the freedom, equality and opportunity that is America's
promise. When I first became President I said I had three great goals to prepare America for the
�new century. I wanted to create a country where the American Dream of opportunity was alive
for all Americans, where America was coming together as a responsible community, not being
divided, and where we continued to be the world's leading force for peace and freedom.
In the last four-and-a-half years, we have made progress. Unemployment is at 4.8%, the
lowest level in 24 years. Our economy has created more than 12 million new jobs. Business is
booming and this state's economy has turned around.
Our society is also becoming more cohesive. We had the biggest drop in crime in 36
years last year. We are seeing an historic drop in the welfare rolls and we putting in place an
effective welfare to work strategy.
We have made significant progress in reconciling our differences as a society.
Republicans and Democrats are finding common ground on issues like the budget. We are
reconciling our religious differences with measures like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
and in bringing together the religious community — Christians, Muslims, Jews and others ~ in
seeking solutions.
We have made all this progress, but there is one thing that could hold us back — racial
and ethnic divisions. Nothing can hold us back more than these divisions; nothing can give us
more strength than if we come together.
Our first step must be to acknowledge that in the 21st century, America will not look as it
does today. We are already very diverse. Right now, there are more Jews in the City of New
York than in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv combined. There are more Irish in the state of
Massachusetts than in Dublin; more Italians in New York City than in Palermo, Venice, Florence
and Genoa. And in the future, we are going to be more multiracial and mutlticultural than ever
before. One-half century from now, about the time you'll be retiring and your own grandchildren
will be in college, whites who are not Hispanic will be a bare majority. One out of every four
people will be Latino. And it is entirely conceivable that African Americans, Hispanics, Asian
Americans, Native Americans and other people of color will combine to form a new American
plurality.
Within the next three years, right here in California, no single race or ethnic group will
make up as much as half the state's population. There are now five school districts in this
country where more than 100 languages are spoken by students. And the demand by newcomers
to leam English is so great that some cities are conducting 'round the clock English as a second
language classes and still the demand cannot be met.
It is clear, the face of America is evolving. And, I will tell you, we cannot greet that fact
with indifference; we cannot run away from it; we cannot retreat into racial and ethnic enclaves
of isolation. And we cannot pretend that the changing face of America is invisible. We must
look in the mirror and ask the question anew: What does it mean to be an American? Do we
�decide who is an American by where they were bom? Do we decide who is an American by how
they talk? Or by the music they enjoy or the books they read? Do we decide who is an
American by the color of their skin? No, we do not.
To answer that question, we must do two things simultaneously: First, we must honor and
celebrate our diversity. And second, we must unite around a common creed and set of values.
The mistake we make is skipping step one and going straight to step two. Justice Blackmon once
said, "In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race." So, we must do a better
job of respecting and seeing the value in our racial and ethnic diversity. That means getting rid
of the myths and stereotypes we hold about each other. Different groups in America at various
times, have been labeled, ridiculed and mistreated. That is wrong. And it helps to explain why
some groups have created their own subculture apart from the mainstream. In some cases this
has been used to bolster wounded self esteem. But in other cases it has taken on the self
destructive form of gangs and angry alienation. That is wrong too and it is not the kind of
America that we want to leave to our children.
But along with respecting diversity, we must unite around a common creed. Being an
American means accepting that we are not a nation united by a single race, or a single religion or
even a single history. The only thing that unites us is our belief in the founding ideals that have
always guided us. The vision stated in Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our Declaration of
Independence are the best models ever created by humankind for a fair, just and free society.
Being an American means always trying to live up to those ideals. We have not always done that
well, but we have never stopped trying and our people, even those who have suffered the most,
have never lost faith that these ideals would produce a better day.
And with conviction, hard work and sacrifice, a better day does come. Your own
Chancellor, xxx, was afreedomriderin the South during the 60s, part of the movement that
fought for the civil rights of African Americans. I saw first hand how black citizens were denied
basic rights. I was 11 years old when President Eisenhower ordered troops into Little Rock so
that 9 black children could integrate Central High. When I was growing up, schools weren't the
only segregated places in America — so were restaurants, drinking fountains, public bathrooms,
and movie theaters. We passed laws to end all that. And still, when I was a high school senior
and attending Boys Nation in Washington, DC, in 1963,1 was one of only 3 boys who voted in
support of civil rights - because the tide had not yet changed. And when I was your age and in
school in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King was killed and the streets exploded in flames. I
will never forget the pain and anger I saw.
It was after Dr. King's assassination that the Kemer Commission was formed. And it
concluded that we were two nations, one black, one white, separate and unequal. Now, three
decades later, we are at risk of becoming many nations ~ closer together in our lives perhaps, but
still too far apart in our hearts.
The Kemer Commission was formed in a time of crisis. We don't have a crisis in our
�streets right now, but we still have problems. There are obvious differences of opinion about
how the criminal justice operates in this country. There are still disparities in educational
attainment, in access to health care. And there are still pockets in America that have not
benefited from the extraordinary prosperity our country enjoys.
And sadly, prejudice is still a fact of life in America. We see it everyday: The inability of
a black man to hail a cab after dark downtown. The indignity of a Latina being followed around
in a department store. The resentment toward Asian Americans who achieve. The assumption
that someone who is poor and white is also not intelligent. Job and housing discrimination. And
the insidious stereotypes we hold about each other and that are so often reinforced in the news
media and our popular culture. So, while we don't have a crisis in our streets, our behavior and
our attitudes speak to another kind of crisis, a crisis of conscience.
The divisions that all these things reinforce on a daily basis have a volatile potential. If
you want to see examples of where unhealed divisions can lead, just look around the world:
Chiapas, Chechnya, Rwanda. It is also the root of conflict in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, even next
door in Canada. It falls to us to make sure this can never happen in America.
And it won't if we stop building walls and begin building pathways to greater
understanding.
We did not understand 30 years ago, what we are beginning to understand now: diversity
has always been America's great strength. During World War II, Navajo Code Talkers devised
an unbreakable code based on their language that was used by the Marines to confound the
enemy. Venice High School in Venice, California, won the 1997 Science Bowl, competing
against the best high schools in the country. Venice High School is 67% Latino, 15% African
America, 8% white and 5% Asian American. Black, Hispanic and Asian American astronauts
are helping us explore the heavens alongside their counterparts from around the world. We send
the most diverse teams to the Olympics and bring home the most medals. Our armed forces are
the best in the world, and they are also the most diverse. Our best corporations use diversity in
their hiring and marketing to sell more of their products.
And I will tell you why diversity is so important at UCSD. You are producing the
doctors, the teachers, the lawyers, and other professionals who are so desperately needed in many
minority communities. These men and women are doing more than providing professional
services — they are role models for young people who need to know that they too can succeed.
I was happy to see that one of the schools on this campus is named after Thurgood
Marshall. It was 30 years ago yesterday that Justice Marshall became the first African American
to serve on the Supreme Court. I am proud that his son, Thurgood Marshall, Jr., is a member of
my staff. Thurgood Marshall, Sr., ended segregation in America's schools by winning a case
called Brown vs the Board of Education in 1954. That ruling rejected the notion of "separate but
equal," and the years have shown us that it was the right thing to do. Today, we are in danger of
�exhuming that failed policy from its grave with the elimination of affirmative action in higher
education here in California and in Texas.
Proposition 209 is a bad deal for America. Just look at what it is doing to graduate school
admission here in California. Last year there were 78 Latinos in the entering class at UC
Berkeley Law School. This year half that number -- 39 were admitted. Last year there were 75
African Americans in that same class — this year only 14. The same thing is happening in Texas
as result of the Hopwood case.
The chilling effect of all this is that bright students of color are beginning to feel
unwelcome and won't even apply. This is appalling. At a time when we should be opening the
doors of education to more and more of our citizens, those doors are being closed. This
wholesale retreat from affirmative action education is threatening to keep out those who have
historically been excluded. It is a real mistake to think that we can build the kind of future we
want, if minorities don't have access to educational opportunity or if we resegregate higher
education. Measures like 209 are setting us back. So, how do we move forward?
The first step is to protect the progress that we have made, and not let it be rolled back.
And then to examine where more change is needed, so that our policies match our words.
But we must do something more. And it may sound simple, but it is not. The next step is
to talk. We have talked at each other and about each other. It is high time we begin talking with
each other. We need a great national conversation about race and diversity to acknowledge
frankly those things that divide us.
I want to begin an examination of where we are and where we are headed ~ to take a look
at how our evolving diversity is affecting our cities, our schools, our housing, health care, the
administration of justice, jobs and our economy.
I am announcing today, that I am appointing an advisory board of distinguished
Americans, led by this century's preeminent racial scholar, John Hope Franklin. This advisory
board will advise me as we engage the American people in a year-long dialogue to take stock of
the changing face of America and develop recommendations to achieve racial and ethnic
reconciliation. To augment the work of this advisory board, I will conduct four national town
hall meetings and other activities across the country.
This will not be another commission, issuing another report. This time, the President will
lead the effort. This time, the panel recruit local leaders to engage their communities in this great
national dialogue. This time, it will be the responsibility of the President to report to the nation
in about one year's time.
I know that honest dialogue will not be easy at first. It may open wounds, but that is how
we begin the healing so that we may move past them and live in unity.
�Let's start with the truth. To whites, I say, do not pretend there is no prejudice. We will
never get beyond this problem, unless we first acknowledge its existence.
To the grandchildren of European immigrants: Do not pull up the ladder from the new
immigrants who come here for the same reason and with the same values as your ancestors.
To minorities, especially young black and Hispanic men and women: Do not let real or
imagined racism cause you to retreat into enclaves of anger and isolation.
And to all Americans; do not use race or racism as an excuse for lawlessness, hatred or
self-destruction. It is not racist to insist that our immigration laws be obeyed. Racism cannot
explain black on black crime any more than it can explain white on white crime.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we propose nothing but policy ideas that are merely small gestures along the way, that
will be too little. But if 10 years from now, people can look back and see that America's
commitment to our ideals was renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King
generation finally shouldered its fair burden in this historic struggle, then this effort will have
been a success.
I believe strongly that America's best days lie ahead. We have what it takes to be the
greatest multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy the world has ever known — a
place where differences are not merely tolerated, but celebrated.
Let us remember where America started, how far we have come, and let us never forget
how much farther we must go. Much of the burden — and all the benefits — will lie with you and
the generations to come. We must look forward to the day when race and ethnicity are not
America's constant obsession - when the color of the skin is no more important than the color of
your hair. We must recommit ourselves to our long national journey to become One America.
Thank you, God bless you and Godspeed.
�PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
ONE AMERICA IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO
JUNE 14, 1997
[Acknowledgments]
Today, you take your place as citizens of the great American community in a golden
moment for our nation. The Cold War is over, withfreedomascendant around the globe. Our
economy is the healthiest in a generation and the strongest in the world. Our culture, our science,
our technology are on the cutting edge. Social problems -- from crime to poverty -- which for so
long seemed destined to deepen, are now bending to our efforts.
On these issues, we have made more progress, in a shorter time, with less rancor, than
many thought would ever be possible. Sooner, and to a greater degree than any other nation, we
have made the transition from the old economic order to the new world of technology,
information and free trade. Without fanfare, without crisis, quietly and in that very practical
American way — at the very moment when some were predicting our decline, we have entered a
new era of American leadership. Today we stand on the eve of a second American century.
But there is one thing that can still hold us back -- a contradiction not yet resolved that
�lies at the heart of our history. More than 200 years ago this nation began with a pledge of
equality, but then long continued to condone slavery. More than 30 years ago, at the high tide of
civil rights, the Kemer Commission said that we were becoming two Americas, one black, one
white, separate and unequal. Now, in this new era of American leadership, there is one place
where we continue to lag behind: we are in danger of becoming many Americas, separate,
unequal, and isolated. Lincoln warned, quoting the Scripture, us that a house divided against
itself cannot stand. And a nation not at peace with its identity cannot continue to move forward.
We must be one America — or we won't be America at all.
The great civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois said that "the problem of the 20th century
will be the problem of the color line." In so many ways, he was right. At times, in flames and in
anger, racial conflict almost consumed us. And it was only during those hours of maximum
danger that we faced this issue squarely. Now, at a time of gathering hope, when there is no
firebell in the night, we must pledge: Our great and growing diversity will not be "the problem of
the 21 st Century." It falls to us to fashion for the next century the greatest multiethnic, multireligious, multiracial democracy the world has ever known.
We must find our new unity in the face of stunning change: Within the next three years,
right here in California, no single race or ethnic group will make up a majority of the state's
population. And a half century from now, when your own grandchildren are in college, it is
entirely conceivable that a majority of the population will be Latino, African American, Asian
American, Native American and other people of color.
�It is clear: the face of America is evolving. And, I will tell you, we cannot greet that fact
with indifference; we cannot run away from it; we cannot retreat into racial and ethnic enclaves
of isolation. And we cannot pretend that the changing face of America is invisible. We must
look in the mirror and ask the question anew: What does it mean to be an American? The face of
America is changing, and the soul of America must rise to the challenge.
I want us to define our greatness as a country based on our extraordinary achievements,
the greatfreedomwe enjoy, the texture of our relationships with the world and each other.
Alone among nations, America was founded not on race, or religion, or geography, but on
an ideal — an ideal so revolutionary and so profound it guides us still. "We are all created equal."
This was the proposition to which Abraham Lincoln rededicated our nation at Gettysburg. This
was the true meaning of our creed to which Martin Luther King summoned us a century later.
For two centuries, wave upon wave of immigrants have come to our shores, to work, to
raise their families, to build a new life, speaking many tongues, wearing the garb of many
cultures, but all drawn here by those same ideals. We have never lived up to our founding
vision, but we have never stopped trying — and our people, even those who have suffered the
most, have never lost faith in the American creed.
For four years, as your President, I have worked to offer opportunity to all Americans, to
demand responsibility from all Americans, and to bring our people together across all the lines
�that divide us, in a true national community. To that effort, we must tum as a nation with even
greater fervor.
So today, and for the next year, and for the years to come, I want us to face honestly those
things that divide us - to embrace those things that unite us -- and to join in a national effort,
aimed at action, that will move us forward.
The divisions in our land
We must begin by acknowledging that our house is divided.
Scripture teaches us, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Too often in our past, and sadly
even today, we have defined our greatness not by lifting each other up, but by putting each other
down — the sufferings heaped upon Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and the
tragic litany of injustices inflicted upon immigrants of every race and color at various times in
our history.
I am a son of the South and the grandson of a man who taught me a valuable lesson at a
young age. He told me, yes, I was different than the black children who came into his small
grocery store, but I was no better. But I could see that on the black side of town streets were left
unpaved. And segregation was legally sanctioned. There were "whites only" signs at public
restrooms. Blacks and whites could not swim together, we could not drink at the same water
�fountain, we could not even sit in the same section at the movies. I was 11 years old when
President Eisenhower ordered troops into Little Rock so that nine black children could integrate
Central High. And when I was your age and in school in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King
was killed and the streets exploded in flames. My memory is forever singed by the pain and
anger I saw.
We have torn down the barriers in our laws. Now we must tear down the barriers in our
minds. Even with more of us working together, living side-by-side, and intermarrying more than
every before, we know there is still more than one way of looking at an event, at the world, at
each other. We know that blacks and whites can look at the same reality and see two different
things; hear the same remark and hear two different meanings. And we know that stereotypes —
some of them ugly, some mild, but all destructive ~ still keep us apart.
Many whites believe that the problem of racism is over. They honestly believe that the
playing field is equal and blacks have the same opportunities as they do when in comes to jobs,
and housing and education. But, feelings and reality are starkly different for blacks. We must
tell the truth.
The truth is that many African-Americans are benefiting from our strong economy. But
there is another truth that must be told. African American and Latino workers still earn markedly
less than what whites in the same jobs make. And for many minority communities, there are still
glaring disparities in access to health care, educational attainment, the administration of justice,
5
�and housing.
But just as we must tell the truth about what racism is, we must also tell the truth about
what it is not. Let's not hide behind the ugly wall of racism to explain away some of our worst
behavior. Racism doesn't cause a 14 year-old boy to commit a murder in a street comer drug
deal. It is nol racist for a middle class white family or a middle class Latino, black or AsianAmerican family to feel safer in a suburb away from the crime and drugs of some of our
neighborhoods. Hatred and self destruction are their own demons, and as we banish racism, we
must banish them too.
We must tell the truth. To whites I say, do not pretend there is no prejudice. We will
never get beyond this problem unless we first acknowledge its existence. To minorities, I say,
most whites are not prejudiced - and the people who seek to sow hatred and division are their
own very small minority.
To the grandchildren of European immigrants: do not pull up the ladder from the new
immigrants who come here for the same reason and with the same values as your ancestors.
To the media both news and entertainment: understand that your depictions of people can
either play on stereotypes or pull them down. Do not take your power — or your responsibility —
lightly.
�And to all our young people, especially young men, do not use race or racism as an
excuse for hatred or violence against people who look different than you. Do not let real or
imagined racism cause you to retreat into enclaves of rage and recrimination.
What unites us
All these problems are real. But we must have the clarity of mind and charity of spirit to
realize that they are not new — and that the striving to surmount them is the story of America.
We are all, in Martin Luther King's words, woven into "one garment of destiny." We
rightly celebrate the multiplicity of America -- our marvelous blend - f cultures, beliefs and races.
Yet despite this diversity, or above it, we possess a common identity ~ as Americans and as
human beings.
We must recognize that the same ethnic and racial ties that can offer us a sanctuary of
meaning and personal strength also contain the possibility of a frighteningfragmentation.We
must honor our diversity; we must cherish the uniqueness of each culture that feeds into the
American experience; we must find new ways of talking to one another with respect instead of
disdain. But we must reach with even greater fervor across those lines that divide us, to honor
and strengthen those bonds of community and shared values that have always united us.
Our national motto says: E Pluribus Unum, "Out of Many, One." What unites us as
7
�Americans?
We Americans are a people bound by faith. Every week we fill our churches, mosques
and synagogues. Religious observance in our nation is the most intense in the Western world.
That is true across every ethnic line. We are truly "one nation under God."
We are a people united by respect for the value of work. It is our work that supports all
our efforts to build strong families and strong communities.
And we are a people who still believe - more than any other on earth -- that every
individual has within himself or herself the spark of possibility, that still, 220 years later, we are
all created equal.
Opportunity for all. Responsibility from all. Faith, family, community. These are the
values of no one color or region or religion. These are America's values. And these are the values
we must put to work as we prepare our nation for the century ahead.
What we must do now
The first thing we must do is to recognize that a growing economy must be the strong
floor underneath our common American home. When I ran for President in 1992, for too long
issues of crime and welfare and even the role of government had been used to divide us, one
�from the other. The hardest pressed working people of all races were being goaded to tum on
one another and to blame others.
Racism would be less of a problem if everyone had a good job. Racism would be less of
a problem if everyone had a chance to get a good education. Racism would be less of a problem
if everyone had safe and decent housing and health care.
So we must continue the strategy for economic growth that has brought our nation the
strongest prosperity in a generation. I am especially pleased that, this time, the economic gains
of our expansion are being widely shared. Wages have begun, finally, to rise; inequality, to
shrink. And for the first time in many years, unemployment among African-Americans and
Hispanics has been in single digits. Minority home ownership and business ownership are at
record levels.
The economy has created many jobs. But disparities remain. In some states,
unemployment is so low there is a labor shortage; while in some of our cities, unemployment is
quite high and so are the social ills that accompany poverty. That is no coincidence. We are
working hard to encourage employers to locate in the cities, but businesses need to make a
commitment to the cities, too. We cannot leave our cities behind.
Second, we must make opportunity real for all our young people through education. In
the new economy, our most important goal must be to give our young people the world's best
9
�education. We must hold all our children to the highest standards, and give them safe and
modem schools, trained teachers and the help they need to leam. We must admit that too many
schools in our cities are failing, and that we cannot expect every child to meet high standards if
we do not give them the tools to succeed. We must open the doors of college wider than ever,
giving more deserving students scholarships and helping every family to pay for college.
But we can't stop there. We must protect access to higher education for people of all
color. I ask you: What does it mean for this state and for Texas that some of the brightest
students won't even apply to law schools there? It means a "brain drain." That's the disease that
erodes future prosperity and it's caused by Proposition 209 and the Hopwood case. It's also
called "resegregation." And if you believe that we can build the kind of society we need in the
21st century by closing the door on whole segments of our people, then you don't remember the
lessons of the South. I saw school segregation, and it took years to begin to tum back the
damage it did socially and economically. It wasn't until segregation ended that the economy in
the South began to swing upward.
A college education means stability, better jobs, a chance to join the middle class, another
stakeholder in America. We do not believe in guaranteeing equal outcomes, but we do believe in
guaranteeing equal opportunity - and that means education. We cannot abandon any efforts to
expand access to higher education — and that includes affirmative action.
Let's be honest: Test scores are but one factor in admissions. Here are some others:
10
�allilclic ability
no one complains when a top quarterback or basketball center is given extra
consideration for admission to many schools. Or the children of alumni. Or music prodigies.
Well, a diversified student body has value, too.
I want to be clear: We will continue to fight the rollback of affirmative action in higher
education because it is wrong, it is hurtful to our progress and it divides our people. [209 is a
wrong number.]
Third, we must continue to be vigilant against discrimination, wherever and whenever it
appears.
The fight against crime is a fight for the rights of all our people — especially the poorest
people in the poorest neighborhoods, who are most often the victims of violence. Community
efforts across the country have brought crime to a 30 year low (ck). We are putting 100,000 new
community police officers on the streets, but our minority communities are still underserved.
Our police officers are the protectors of order in our society, putting their lives on the line every
day to keep our people safe. But we have seen that authority can be abused and brutal force used
on some of our citizens. So, as we call for our citizens to respect the law, we need the law to
respect our citizens, no matter their color or economic condition.
And our civil rights agencies are among the most critical law enforcement agencies in the
government -- and we must give them the resources they need to end the crushing backlog of
11
�cases and get the job done. It's time for Congress to put our money where our ideals are.
These are all areas that need our focus. But we cannot come to solutions or even truly
identify our problems unless we are willing to be honest with each other. It's time to let down
our guards, and to be honest with people different from ourselves. We have talked at each other
and about each other. It is high time we begin talking with each other.
Beginning today. I want to lead the American people in a great and unprecedented
conversation about race. I have asked one of America's greatest scholars, Dr. John Hope
Franklin to chair an advisory panel of distinguished Americans. [OTHER NAMES]
We will examine the stereotypes and the facts - the myths and the reality - that hold us
apart. We will ask Americans to talk to one another everyday, at home, in their communities, in
school, at work. I will join this conversation with Americans across our nation at four town
meetings over the next year.
And in one year's time, I will report directly to the American people about what I have
found and what we must do.
The town meetings I will hold are just the start. I call on Americans of all colors to begin
a "table fellowship" within their communities, to break bread together and begin to know each
other. And I want every American to see this as an opportunity to leam about each other by
12
�doing with each other. Tutors are needed in many communities to teach reading and other skills;
that kind of interaction pays dividends in many ways. Churches, mosques, synagogues could
consider exchanging congregations for a Sunday.
I know that honest dialogue and exchange will not be easy at first. We need to get past
defensiveness, fear, political correctness and other barriers to honesty. That may open wounds,
but that is how we begin the healing so that we may move past them.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we propose nothing but policy ideas that are merely small gestures along the way, that
will be too little. But if 10 years from now, people can look back and see that America's
commitment to our ideals was renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King
generation finally shouldered its fair burden in this historic struggle, then this effort will have
been a success.
From our earliest days, America has been a beacon to the world. For two centuries, on
every continent, people struggling for freedom looked to see if our "great experiment" would
succeed. Over the past century, we have taken our greatest strides when we knew the whole
world was watching. Today, the people of Bosnia and Rwanda and the Middle East are
watching. With American ideas and ideals ascendent, with ancient racial and ethnic hatreds once
again flaring around the globe, we must be a beacon, we must be that last great hope for
mankind.
13
�We may not achieve as much as we want, but let us set our aim as high as we can. Let us
resolve that we shall overcome in our day and generation. We cannot be many Americas. We
must be One America. We are One America.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
14
�This is an opportunity for us to join together as a
great American community, to marry our economic self
interest with our common interest.
One of the best ways we can do this is by moving
people from welfare to work. My friend, Eli Segal, is
spearheading our effort to mobilize America's business
community to do just that; and more than one hundred
companies — including Jim Kelly of UPS, Bill Marriott
of Marriott, [Bill Esrey of Sprint], and Sanford Weill of
Travelers, who are here with us today -- have already
pledged to help. I ask you all to join them.
19
�I want every executive who has ever said a negative
word about yesterday's failed welfare system to listen to
this: that system is gone; we have removed it forever; we
have made responsibility a way of life; now it is up to all
of us to take our responsibility and help those who will
now try to help themselves.
And finally, we have a chance to work together in the
months and years ahead to find a common-sense,
farsighted approach to climate change. Scientists
overwhelmingly agree that the way we live our lives is
changing the earth's climate, in ways that we don't yet
completely understand, but which may dramatically affect
the world our children will inherit.
20
�To protect our economy and our future, we must
address this threat now.
With this great challenge comes great opportunity. I
know there are many views on how best to address this
challenge. We must make sure that all of those views are
heard, and all of the existing information considered.
That is why we must engage in a national dialogue,
and confront this issue that is so critically important to the
future of our nation, and the world. I urge all of you to
join with me in that dialogue.
21
�Let's keep U.S. companies at the forefront of the
global market for environmental solutions, already worth
$400 billion each year. Let's work together for a strong
international agreement that protects our flexibility and
allows us to grow the economy as we cut the pollution
that causes global warming.
This is a full agenda, but these are times that are rich
with opportunity. I look forward to working with you to
st
send this country into the 21 Century stronger than ever.
Thank you.
22
�W I 2./17 U ' ' ^ ^
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
ONE AMERICA IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO
JUNE 14, 1997
[Acknowledgments]
Today, you take your place as citizens of the great American community in a golden
moment for our nation. The Cold War is over, withfreedomascendant around the globe. Our
economy is the healthiest in a generation and the strongest in the world. Our culture, our science,
our technology are on the cutting edge. Social problems —fromcrime to poverty — which for so
long seemed destined to deepen, are now bending to our efforts.
On these issues, we have made more progress, in a shorter time, with less rancor, than
many thought would ever be possible. Sooner, and to a greater degree than any other nation, we
have made the transition from the old economic order to the new world of technology,
information and free trade. Without fanfare, without crisis, quietly and in that very practical
American way — at the very moment when some were predicting our decline, we have entered a
new era of American leadership. Today we stand on the eve of a second American century.
But there is one thing that can still hold us back -- a contradiction not yet resolved that
�lies at the heart of our history. More than 200 years ago this nation began with a pledge of
equality, but then long continued to condone slavery. More than 30 years ago, at the high tide of
civil rights, the Kemer Commission said that we were becoming two Americas, one black, one
white, separate and unequal. Now, in this new era of American leadership, there is one place
where we continue to lag behind: we are in danger of becoming many Americas, separate,
unequal, and isolated. Lincoln warned, quoting the Scripture, us that a house divided against
itself cannot stand. And a nation not at peace with its identity cannot continue to move forward.
We must be one America ~ or we won't be America at all.
The great civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois said that "the problem of the 20th century
will be the problem of the color line." In so many ways, he was right. At times, in flames and in
anger, racial conflict almost consumed us. And it was only during those hours of maximum
danger that we faced this issue squarely. Now, at a time of gathering hope, when there is no
firebell in the night, we must pledge: Our great and growing diversity will not be "the problem of
the 21 st Century." It falls to us to fashion for the next century the greatest multiethnic, multireligious, multiracial democracy the world has ever known.
We must find our new unity in the face of stunning change: Within the next three years,
right here in California, no single race or ethnic group will make up a majority of the state's
population. And a half century from now, when your own grandchildren are in college, it is
entirely conceivable that a majority of the population will be Latino, African American, Asian
American, Native American and other people of color.
�It is clear: the face of America is evolving. And, I will tell you, we cannot greet that fact
with indifference; we cannot run away from it; we cannot retreat into racial and ethnic enclaves
of isolation. And we cannot pretend that the changing face of America is invisible. We must
look in the mirror and ask the question anew: What does it mean to be an American? The face of
America is changing, and the soul of America must rise to the challenge.
I want us to define our greatness as a country based on our extraordinary achievements,
the greatfreedomwe enjoy, the texture of our relationships with the world and each other.
Alone among nations, America was founded not on race, or religion, or geography, but on
an ideal — an ideal so revolutionary and so profound it guides us still. "We are all created equal."
This was the proposition to which Abraham Lincoln rededicated our nation at Gettysburg. This
was the true meaning of our creed to which Martin Luther King summoned us a century later.
For two centuries, wave upon wave of immigrants have come to our shores, to work, to
raise their families, to build a new life, speaking many tongues, wearing the garb of many
cultures, but all drawn here by those same ideals. We have never lived up to our founding
vision, but we have never stopped trying — and our people, even those who have suffered the
most, have never lost faith in the American creed.
For four years, as your President, I have worked to offer opportunity to all Americans, to
demand responsibility from all Americans, and to bring our people together across all the lines
�that divide us, in a true national community- To that effort, we must tum as a nation with even
greater fervor.
So today, and for the next year, and for the years to come, I want us to face honestly those
things that divide us - to embrace those things that unite us -- and to join in a national effort,
aimed at action, that will move us forward.
The divisions in our land
We must begin by acknowledging that our house is divided.
Scripture teaches us, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Too often in our past, and sadly
even today, we have defined our greatness not by lifting each other up, but by putting each other
down — the sufferings heaped upon Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and the
tragic litany of injustices inflicted upon immigrants of every race and color at various times in
our history.
I am a son of the South and the grandson of a man who taught me a valuable lesson at a
young age. He told me, yes, I was different than the black children who came into his small
grocery store, but I was no better. But I could see that on the black side of town streets were left
unpaved. And segregation was legally sanctioned. There were "whites only" signs at public
restrooms. Blacks and whites could not swim together, we could not drink at the same water
�fountain, we could not even sit in the same section at the movies. I was 11 years old when
President Eisenhower ordered troops into Little Rock so that nine black children could integrate
Central High. And when I was your age and in school in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King
was killed and the streets exploded in flames. My memory is forever singed by the pain and
anger I saw.
We have torn down the barriers in our laws. Now we must tear down the barriers in our
minds. Even with more of us working together, living side-by-side, and intermarrying more than
every before, we know there is still more than one way of looking at an event, at the world, at
each other. We know that blacks and whites can look at the same reality and see two different
things; hear the same remark and hear two different meanings. And we know that stereotypes —
some of them ugly, some mild, but all destructive — still keep us apart.
Many whites believe that the problem of racism is over. They honestly believe that the
playing field is equal and blacks have the same opportunities as they do when in comes to jobs,
and housing and education. But, feelings and reality are starkly different for blacks. We must
tell the truth.
The truth is that many African-Americans are benefiting from our strong economy. But
there is another truth that must be told. African American and Latino workers still earn markedly
less than what whites in the same jobs make. And for many minority communities, there are still
glaring disparities in access to health care, educational attainment, the administration of justice,
�and housing.
But just as we must tell the truth about what racism is, we must also tell the truth about
what it is not. Let's not hide behind the ugly wall of racism to explain away some of our worst
behavior. Racism doesn't cause a 14 year-old boy to commit a murder in a street comer drug
deal. It is not racist for a middle class white family or a middle class Latino, black or AsianAmerican family to feel safer in a suburb away from the crime and drugs of some of our
neighborhoods. Hatred and self destmction are their own demons, and as we banish racism, we
must banish them too.
We must tell the truth. To whites I say, do not pretend there is no prejudice. We will
never get beyond this problem unless we first acknowledge its existence. To minorities, I say,
most whites are not prejudiced - and the people who seek to sow hatred and division are their
own very small minority.
To the grandchildren of European immigrants: do not pull up the ladder from the new
immigrants who come here for the same reason and with the same values as your ancestors.
To the media both news and entertainment: understand that your depictions of people can
either play on stereotypes or pull them down. Do not take your power ~ or your responsibility —
lightly.
6
�And to all our young people, especially young men, do not use race or racism as an
excuse for hatred or violence against people who look different than you. Do not let real or
imagined racism cause you to retreat into enclaves of rage and recrimination.
What unites us
All these problems are real. But we must have the clarity of mind and charity of spirit to
realize that they are not new -- and that the striving to surmount them is the story of America.
We are all, in Martin Luther King's words, woven into "one garment of destiny." We
rightly celebrate the multiplicity of America — our marvelous blend of cultures, beliefs and races.
Yet despite this diversity, or above it, we possess a common identity -- as Americans and as
human beings.
We must recognize that the same ethnic and racial ties that can offer us a sanctuary of
meaning and personal strength also contain the possibility of a frightening fragmentation. We
must honor our diversity; we must cherish the uniqueness of each culture that feeds into the
American experience; we must find new ways of talking to one another with respect instead of
disdain. But we must reach with even greater fervor across those lines that divide us, to honor
and strengthen those bonds of community and shared values that have always united us.
Our national motto says: E Pluribus Unum, "Out of Many, One." What unites us as
�Americans?
We Americans are a people bound by faith. Every week we fill our churches, mosques
and synagogues. Religious observance in our nation is the most intense in the Western world.
That is true across every ethnic line. We are truly "one nation under God."
We are a people united by respect for the value of work. It is our work that supports all
our efforts to build strong families and strong communities.
And we are a people who still believe - more than any other on earth -- that every
individual has within himself or herself the spark of possibility, that still, 220 years later, we are
all created equal.
Opportunity for all. Responsibility from all. Faith, family, community. These are the
values of no one color or region or religion. These are America's values. And these are the values
we must put to work as we prepare our nation for the century ahead.
What we must do now
The first thing we must do is to recognize that a growing economy must be the strong
floor underneath our common American home. When I ran for President in 1992, for too long
issues of crime and welfare and even the role of government had been used to divide us, one
�from the other. The hardest pressed working people of all races were being goaded to tum on
one another and to blame others.
Racism would be less of a problem if everyone had a good job. Racism would be less of
a problem if everyone had a chance to get a good education. Racism would be less of a problem
if everyone had safe and decent housing and health care.
So we must continue the strategy for economic growth that has brought our nation the
strongest prosperity in a generation. I am especially pleased that, this time, the economic gains
of our expansion are being widely shared. Wages have begun, finally, to rise; inequality, to
shrink. And for the first time in many years, unemployment among African-Americans and
Hispanics has been in single digits. Minority home ownership and business ownership are at
record levels.
The economy has created many jobs. But disparities remain. In some states,
unemployment is so low there is a labor shortage; while in some of our cities, unemployment is
quite high and so are the social ills that accompany poverty. That is no coincidence. We are
working hard to encourage employers to locate in the cities, but businesses need to make a
commitment to the cities, too. We cannot leave our cities behind.
Second, we must make opportunity real for all our young people through education. In
the new economy, our most important goal must be to give our young people the world's best
9
�education. We nmsl hold all our children to the highest standards, and give them safe and
modem schools, trained teachers and the help they need to leam. We must admit that too many
schools in our cities are failing, and that we cannot expect every child to meet high standards if
we do not give them the tools to succeed. We must open the doors of college wider than ever,
giving more deserving students scholarships and helping every family to pay for college.
But we can't stop there. We must protect access to higher education for people of all
color. I ask you: What does it mean for this state and for Texas that some of the brightest
students won't even apply to law schools there? It means a "brain drain." That's the disease that
erodes future prosperity and it's caused by Proposition 209 and the Hopwood case. It's also
called "resegregation." And if you believe that we can build the kind of society we need in the
21st century by closing the door on whole segments of our people, then you don't remember the
lessons of the South. I saw school segregation, and it took years to begin to tum back the
damage it did socially and economically. It wasn't until segregation ended that the economy in
the South began to swing upward.
A college education means stability, better jobs, a chance to join the middle class, another
stakeholder in America. We do not believe in guaranteeing equal outcomes, but we do believe in
guaranteeing equal opportunity -- and that means education. We cannot abandon any efforts to
expand access to higher education -- and that includes affirmative action.
Let's be honest: Test scores are but one factor in admissions. Here are some others:
10
�alhlelic ability -- no one complains when a top quarterback or basketball center is given extra
consideration for admission to many schools. Or the children of alumni. Or music prodigies.
Well, a diversified student body has value, too.
I want to be clear: We will continue to fight the rollback of affirmative action in higher
education because it is wrong, it is hurtful to our progress and it divides our people. [209 is a
wrong number.]
Third, we must continue to be vigilant against discrimination, wherever and whenever it
appears.
The fight against crime is a fight for the rights of all our people -- especially the poorest
people in the poorest neighborhoods, who are most often the victims of violence. Community
efforts across the country have brought crime to a 30 year low (ck). We are putting 100,000 new
community police officers on the streets, but our minority communities are still underserved.
Our police officers are the protectors of order in our society, putting their lives on the line every
day to keep our people safe. But we have seen that authority can be abused and brutal force used
on some of our citizens. So, as we call for our citizens to respect the law, we need the law to
respect our citizens, no matter their color or economic condition.
And our civil rights agencies are among the most critical law enforcement agencies in the
government -- and we must give them the resources they need to end the crushing backlog of
11
�cases and get the job done. It's time for Congress to put our money where our ideals are.
These are all areas that need our focus. But we cannot come to solutions or even truly
identify our problems unless we are willing to be honest with each other. It's time to let down
our guards, and to be honest with people different from ourselves. We have talked at each other
and about each other. It is high time we begin talking with each other.
Beginning today. I want to lead the American people in a great and unprecedented
conversation about race. I have asked one of America's greatest scholars, Dr. John Hope
Franklin to chair an advisory panel of distinguished Americans. [OTHER NAMES]
We will examine the stereotypes and the facts - the myths and the reality - that hold us
apart. We will ask Americans to talk to one another everyday, at home, in their communities, in
school, at work. I will join this conversation with Americans across our nation at four town
meetings over the next year.
And in one year's time, I will report directly to the American people about what I have
found and what we must do.
The town meetings I will hold are just the start. I call on Americans of all colors to begin
a "table fellowship" within their communities, to break bread together and begin to know each
other. And I want every American to see this as an opportunity to leam about each other by
12
�doing with each other. Tutors are needed in many communities to teach reading and other skills;
that kind of interaction pays dividends in many ways. Churches, mosques, synagogues could
consider exchanging congregations for a Sunday.
I know that honest dialogue and exchange will not be easy at first. We need to get past
defensiveness, fear, political correctness and other barriers to honesty. That may open wounds,
but that is how we begin the healing so that we may move past them.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we propose nothing but policy ideas that are merely small gestures along the way, that
will be too little. But if 10 years from now, people can look back and see that America's
commitment to our ideals was renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King
generation finally shouldered its fair burden in this historic struggle, then this effort will have
been a success.
From our earliest days, America has been a beacon to the world. For two centuries, on
every continent, people struggling for freedom looked to see if our "great experiment" would
succeed. Over the past century, we have taken our greatest strides when we knew the whole
world was watching. Today, the people of Bosnia and Rwanda and the Middle East are
watching. With American ideas and ideals ascendent, with ancient racial and ethnic hatreds once
again flaring around the globe, we must be a beacon, we must be that last great hope for
mankind.
13
�We may not achieve as much as we want, but let us set our aim as high as we can. Let us
resolve that we shall overcome in our day and generation. We cannot be many Americas. We
must be One America. We are One America.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
14
�This is an opportunity for us to join together as a
great American community, to marry our economic self
interest with our common interest.
One of the best ways we can do this is by moving
people from welfare to work. Myfriend,Eli Segal, is
spearheading our effort to mobilize America's business
community to do just that; and more than one hundred
companies — including Tim Kelly of UPS, Bill Marriott
of Marriott, [Bill Esrey of Sprint], and Sanford Weill of
Travelers, who are here with us today ~ have already
pledged to help. I ask you all to join them.
19
�I want every executive who has ever said a negative
word about yesterday's failed welfare system to listen to
this: that system is gone; we have removed it forever; we
have made responsibility a way of life; now it is up to all
of us to take our responsibility and help those who will
now try to help themselves.
And finally, we have a chance to work together in the
months and years ahead to find a common-sense,
farsighted approach to climate change. Scientists
overwhelmingly agree that the way we live our lives is
changing the earth's climate, in ways that we don't yet
completely understand, but which may dramatically affect
the world our children will inherit.
20
�To protect our economy and our future, we must
address this threat now.
With this great challenge comes great opportunity. I
know there are many views on how best to address this
challenge. We must make sure that all of those views are
heard, and all of the existing information considered.
That is why we must engage in a national dialogue,
and confront this issue that is so critically important to the
future of our nation, and the world. I urge all of you to
join with me in that dialogue.
21
�Let's keep U.S. companies at the forefront of the
global market for environmental solutions, already worth
$400 billion each year. Let's work together for a strong
international agreement that protects our flexibility and
allows us to grow the economy as we cut the pollution
that causes global warming.
This is a fiill agenda, but these are times that are rich
with opportunity. I look forward to working with you to
st
send this country into the 21 Century stronger than ever.
Thank you.
22
�PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
ONE AMERICA IN THE 21ST CENTURY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO
JUNE 14,1997
[Acknowledgments]
Today, you take your place as citizens of the great American community in a golden
moment for our nation. The Cold War is over, withfreedomascendant around the globe. Our
economy is the healthiest in a generation and the strongest in the world. Our culture, our science,
our technology are on the cutting edge. Social problems —fromcrime to poverty ~ which for so
long seemed destined to deepen, are now bending to our efforts.
On these issues, we have made more progress, in a shorter time, with less rancor, than
many thought would ever be possible. Sooner, and to a greater degree than any other nation, we
have made the transition from the old economic order to the new world of technology,
information andfreetrade. Without fanfare, without crisis, quietly and in that very practical
American way ~ at the very moment when some were predicting our decline, we have entered a
new era of American leadership. Today we stand on the eve of a second American century.
But there is one thing that can still hold us back - a contradiction not yet resolved that
�lies at the heart of our history. More than 200 years ago this nation began with a pledge of
equality, but then long continued lo condone slavery. More than 30 years ago, at the high tide of
civil rights, the Kemer Commission said that we were becoming two Americas, one black, one
white, separate and unequal. Now, in this new era of American leadership, there is one place
where we continue to lag behind: we are in danger of becoming many Americas, separate,
unequal, and isolated. Lincoln warned, quoting the Scripture, us that a house divided against
itself cannot stand. And a nation not at peace with its identity cannot continue to move forward.
We must be one America — or we won't be America at all.
The great civil rights leader W.E.B. DuBois said that "the problem of the 20th century
will be the problem of the color line." In so many ways, he was right. At times, in flames and in
anger, racial conflict almost consumed us. And it was only during those hours of maximum
danger that we faced this issue squarely. Now, at a time of gathering hope, when there is no
firebell in the night, we must pledge: Our great and growing diversity will not be "the problem of
the 21 st Century." It falls to us to fashion for the next century the greatest multiethnic, multireligious, multiracial democracy the world has ever known.
We must find our new unity in the face of stunning change: Within the next three years,
right here in California, no single race or ethnic group will make up a majority of the state's
population. And a half century from now, when your own grandchildren are in college, it is
entirely conceivable that a majority of the population will be Latino, African American, Asian
American, Native American and other people of color.
�It is clear: the face of America is evolving. And, I will tell you, we cannot greet that fact
with indifference; we cannot run away from it; we cannot retreat into racial and ethnic enclaves
of isolation. And we cannot pretend that the changing face of America is invisible. We must
look in the mirror and ask the question anew: What does it mean to be an American? The face of
America is changing, and the soul of America must rise to the challenge.
I want us to define our greatness as a country based on our extraordinary achievements,
the greatfreedomwe enjoy, the texture of our relationships with the world and each other.
Alone among nations, America was founded not on race, or religion, or geography, but on
an ideal — an ideal so revolutionary and so profound it guides us still. "We are all created equal."
This was the proposition to which Abraham Lincoln rededicated our nation at Gettysburg. This
was the true meaning of our creed to which Martin Luther King summoned us a century later.
For two centuries, wave upon wave of immigrants have come to our shores, to work, to
raise their families, to build a new life, speaking many tongues, wearing the garb of many
cultures, but all drawn here by those same ideals. We have never lived up to our founding
vision, but we have never stopped trying — and our people, even those who have suffered the
most, have never lost faith in the American creed.
For four years, as your President, I have worked to offer opportunity to all Americans, to
demand responsibility from all Americans, and to bring our people together across all the lines
3
�that divide us, in a true national community. To that effort, we must tum as a nation with even
greater fervor.
So today, and for the next year, and for the years to come, 1 want us to face honestly those
things that divide us - to embrace those things that unite us -- and to join in a national effort,
aimed at action, that will move us forward.
The divisions in our land
We must begin by acknowledging that our house is divided.
Scripture teaches us, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Too often in our past, and sadly
even today, we have defined our greatness not by lifting each other up, but by putting each other
down - the sufferings heaped upon Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and the
tragic litany of injustices inflicted upon immigrants of every race and color at various times in
our history.
I am a son of the South and the grandson of a man who taught me a valuable lesson at a
young age. He told me, yes, I was different than the black children who came into his small
grocery store, but I was no better. But I could see that on the black side of town streets were left
unpaved. And segregation was legally sanctioned. There were "whites only" signs at public
restrooms. Blacks and whites could not swim together, we could not drink at the same water
4
�fountain, we could not even sit in the same section at the movies. I was 11 years old when
President Eisenhower ordered troops into Little Rock so that nine black children could integrate
Central High. And when I was your age and in school in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King
was killed and the streets exploded in flames. My memory is forever singed by the pain and
anger I saw.
We have torn down the barriers in our laws. Now we must tear down the barriers in our
minds. Even with more of us working together, living side-by-side, and intermarrying more than
every before, we know there is still more than one way of looking at an event, at the world, at
each other. We know that blacks and whites can look at the same reality and see two different
things; hear the same remark and hear two different meanings. And we know that stereotypes ~
some of them ugly, some mild, but all destructive ~ still keep us apart.
Many whites believe that the problem of racism is over. They honestly believe that the
playing field is equal and blacks have the same opportunities as they do when in comes to jobs,
and housing and education. But, feelings and reality are starkly different for blacks. We must
tell the truth.
The truth is that many African-Americans are benefiting from our strong economy. But
there is another truth that must be told. African American and Latino workers still earn markedly
less than what whites in the same jobs make. And for many minority communities, there are still
glaring disparities in access to health care, educational attainment, the administration of justice.
�and housing.
But just as we must tell the truth about what racism is, we must also tell the truth about
what it is not. Let's not hide behind the ugly wall of racism to explain away some of our worst
behavior. Racism doesn't cause a 14 year-old boy to commit a murder in a street comer drug
deal. It is nol racist for a middle class white family or a middle class Latino, black or AsianAmerican family to feel safer in a suburb away from the crime and drugs of some of our
neighborhoods. Hatred and self destmction are their own demons, and as we banish racism, we
must banish them too.
We must tell the truth. To whites I say, do not pretend there is no prejudice. We will
never get beyond this problem unless we first acknowledge its existence. To minorities, I say,
most whites are not prejudiced - and the people who seek to sow hatred and division are their
own very small minority.
To the grandchildren of European immigrants: do not pull up the ladder from the new
immigrants who come here for the same reason and with the same values as your ancestors.
To the media both news and entertainment: understand that your depictions of people can
either play on stereotypes or pull them down. Do not take your power ~ or your responsibility lightly.
�And to all our young people, especially young men, do not use race or racism as an
excuse for hatred or violence against people who look different than you. Do not let real or
imagined racism cause you to retreat into enclaves of rage and recrimination.
What unites us
All these problems are real. But we must have the clarity of mind and charity of spirit to
realize that they are not new — and that the striving to surmount them is the story of America.
We are all, in Martin Luther King's words, woven into "one garment of destiny." We
rightly celebrate the multiplicity of America — our marvelous blend of cultures, beliefs and races.
Yet despite this diversity, or above it, we possess a common identity ~ as Americans and as
human beings.
We must recognize that the same ethnic and racial ties that can offer us a sanctuary of
meaning and personal strength also contain the possibility of afrighteningfragmentation.We
must honor our diversity; we must cherish the uniqueness of each culture that feeds into the
American experience; we must find new ways of talking to one another with respect instead of
disdain. But we must reach with even greater fervor across those lines that divide us, to honor
and strengthen those bonds of community and shared values that have always united us.
Our national motto says: E Pluribus Unum, "Out of Many, One." What unites us as
7
�Americans?
We Americans are a people bound by faith. Every week we fill our churches, mosques
and synagogues. Religious observance in our nation is the most intense in the Western world.
That is true across every ethnic line. We are truly "one nation under God."
We are a people united by respect for the value of work. It is our work that supports all
our efforts to build strong families and strong communities.
And we are a people who still believe — more than any other on earth — that every
individual has within himself or herself the spark of possibility, that still, 220 years later, we are
all created equal.
Opportunity for all. Responsibility from all. Faith, family, community. These are the
values of no one color or region or religion. These are America's values. And these are the values
we must put to work as we prepare our nation for the century ahead.
What we must do now
The first thing we must do is to recognize that a growing economy must be the strong
floor underneath our common American home. When I ran for President in 1992, for too long
issues of crime and welfare and even the role of government had been used to divide us, one
8
�from the other. The hardest pressed working people of all races were being goaded to tum on
one another and to blame others.
Racism would be less of a problem if everyone had a good job. Racism would be less of
a problem if everyone had a chance to get a good education. Racism would be less of a problem
if everyone had safe and decent housing and health care.
So we must continue the strategy for economic growth that has brought our nation the
strongest prosperity in a generation. I am especially pleased that, this time, the economic gains
of our expansion are being widely shared. Wages have begun, finally, to rise; inequality, to
shrink. And for the first time in many years, unemployment among African-Americans and
Hispanics has been in single digits. Minority home ownership and business ownership are at
record levels.
The economy has created many jobs. But disparities remain. In some states,
unemployment is so low there is a labor shortage; while in some of our cities, unemployment is
quite high and so are the social ills that accompany poverty. That is no coincidence. We are
working hard to encourage employers to locate in the cities, but businesses need to make a
commitment to the cities, too. We cannot leave our cities behind.
Second, we must make opportunity real for all our young people through education. In
the new economy, our most important goal must be to give our young people the world's best
9
�education. We must hold all ouv children to the highest standards, and give them safe and
modem schools, trained teachers and the help they need to leam. We must admit that too many
schools in our cities are failing, and that we cannot expect every child to meet high standards if
we do not give them the tools to succeed. We must open the doors of college wider than ever,
giving more deserving students scholarships and helping every family to pay for college.
But we can't stop there. We must protect access to higher education for people of all
color. I ask you: What does it mean for this state and for Texas that some of the brightest
students won't even apply to law schools there? It means a "brain drain." That's the disease that
erodes future prosperity and it's caused by Proposition 209 and the Hopwood case. It's also
called "resegregation." And if you believe that we can build the kind of society we need in the
21st century by closing the door on whole segments of our people, then you don't remember the
lessons of the South. I saw school segregation, and it took years to begin to tum back the
damage it did socially and economically. It wasn't until segregation ended that the economy in
the South began to swing upward.
A college education means stability, better jobs, a chance to join the middle class, another
stakeholder in America. We do not believe in guaranteeing equal outcomes, but we do believe in
guaranteeing equal opportunity - and that means education. We cannot abandon any efforts to
expand access to higher education ~ and that includes affirmative action.
Let's be honest: Test scores are but one factor in admissions. Here are some others:
10
�athletic ability — no one complains when a top quarterback or basketball center is given extra
consideration for admission to many schools. Or the children of alumni. Or music prodigies.
Well, a diversified student body has value, too.
I want to be clear: We will continue to fight the rollback of affirmative action in higher
education because it is wrong, it is hurtful to our progress and it divides our people. [209 is a
wrong number.]
Third, we must continue to be vigilant against discrimination, wherever and whenever it
appears.
The fight against crime is a fight for the rights of all our people - especially the poorest
people in the poorest neighborhoods, who are most often the victims of violence. Community
efforts across the country have brought crime to a 30 year low (ck). We are putting 100,000 new
community police officers on the streets, but our minority communities are still underserved.
Our police officers are the protectors of order in our society, putting their lives on the line every
day to keep our people safe. But we have seen that authority can be abused and brutal force used
on some of our citizens. So, as we call for our citizens to respect the law, we need the law to
respect our citizens, no matter their color or economic condition.
And our civil rights agencies are among the most critical law enforcement agencies in the
government - and we must give them the resources they need to end the crushing backlog of
11
�cases and get the job done. It's time for Congress to put our money where our ideals are.
These are all areas that need our focus. But we cannot come to solutions or even truly
identify our problems unless we are willing to be honest with each other. It's time to let down
our guards, and to be honest with people different from ourselves. We have talked at each other
and about each other. It is high time we begin talking with each other.
Beginning today. I want to lead the American people in a great and unprecedented
conversation about race. I have asked one of America's greatest scholars, Dr. John Hope
Franklin to chair an advisory panel of distinguished Americans. [OTHER NAMES]
We will examine the stereotypes and the facts - the myths and the reality - that hold us
apart. We will ask Americans to talk to one another everyday, at home, in their communities, in
school, at work. I will join this conversation with Americans across our nation at four town
meetings over the next year.
And in one year's time, I will report directly to the American people about what I have
found and what we must do.
The town meetings I will hold are just the start. I call on Americans of all colors to begin
a "table fellowship" within their communities, to break bread together and begin to know each
other. And I want every American to see this as an opportunity to leam about each other by
12
�doing with each other. Tutors are needed in many communities to teach reading and other skills;
that kind of interaction pays dividends in many ways. Churches, mosques, synagogues could
consider exchanging congregations for a Sunday.
I know that honest dialogue and exchange will not be easy at first. We need to get past
defensiveness, fear, political correctness and other barriers to honesty. That may open wounds,
but that is how we begin the healing so that we may move past them.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we propose nothing but policy ideas that are merely small gestures along the way, that
will be too little. But i f 10 years from now, people can look back and see that America's
commitment to our ideals was renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King
generation finally shouldered its fair burden in this historic struggle, then this effort will have
been a success.
From our earliest days, America has been a beacon to the world. For two centuries, on
every continent, people struggling for freedom looked to see if our "great experiment" would
succeed. Over the past century, we have taken our greatest strides when we knew the whole
world was watching. Today, the people of Bosnia and Rwanda and the Middle East are
watching. With American ideas and ideals ascendent, with ancient racial and ethnic hatreds once
again flaring around the globe, we must be a beacon, we must be that last great hope for
mankind.
13
�We may not achieve as much as we want, but let us set our aim as high as we can. Let us
resolve that we shall overcome in our day and generation. We cannot be many Americas. We
must be One America. We are One America.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
14
�This is an opportunity for us to join together as a
great American community, to marry our economic self
interest with our common interest.
One of the best ways we can do this is by moving
people from welfare to work. Myfriend,Eli Segal, is
spearheading our effort to mobilize America's business
community to do just that; and more than one hundred
companies ~ including Jim Kelly of UPS, Bill Marriott
of Marriott, [Bill Esrey of Sprint], and Sanford Weill of
Travelers, who are here with us today ~ have already
pledged to help. I ask you all to join them.
19
�I want every executive who has ever said a negative
word about yesterday's failed welfare system to listen to
this: that system is gone; we have removed it forever; we
have made responsibility a way of life; now it is up to all
of us to take our responsibility and help those who will
now try to help themselves.
And finally, we have a chance to work together in the
months and years ahead to find a common-sense,
farsighted approach to climate change. Scientists
overwhelmingly agree that the way we live our lives is
changing the earth's climate, in ways that we don't yet
completely understand, but which may dramatically affect
the world our children will inherit.
20
�To protect our economy and our future, we must
address this threat now.
With this great challenge comes great opportunity. I
know there are many views on how best to address this
challenge. We must make sure that all of those views are
heard, and all of the existing information considered.
That is why we must engage in a national dialogue,
and confront this issue that is so critically important to the
future of our nation, and the world. I urge all of you to
join with me in that dialogue.
21
�Let's keep U.S. companies at the forefront of the
global market for environmental solutions, already worth
$400 billion each year. Let's work together for a strong
international agreement that protects our flexibility and
allows us to grow the economy as we cut the pollution
that causes global warming.
This is a full agenda, but these are times that are rich
with opportunity. I look forward to working with you to
st
send this country into the 21 Century stronger than ever.
Thank you.
22
�Draft 6/13/97 - first half of speech, with edits
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
ONE AMERICA IN THE 21ST CENTURY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT SAN DIEGO
June 14,1997
Acknowledgements: Members of my Cabinet, Sen. Boxer. Sen. Akaka. Rep. Maxine
Waters. Rep. Patsy Mink. Rep. Jim Clyburn. Rep. John Lewis. Rep. Bob Filner [Freedom Riders
on the same Greyhound bus through Mississippi]; Rep. Carlos Romero-Barcelo, Lt. Gov. Gray
Davis. Chancellor Robert Dynes. President Atkinson. Distinguished University of California
Regents, Faculty, Students.
[DR CONNIE thing]
Thank you for inviting me here, and thank you for offering our nation a shining example of
diversity and strength. Here, you have overcome old boundaries of race and national origin. You
have blazed new paths in science and technology, and explored the new horizons of the Pacific
Rim and Latin America. All that and more mark UCSD as a great university for the 21st Century.
Today, we celebrate your achievements at a golden moment for our nation. The Cold
War is over. Freedom is ascendant around the globe, with more than half the world's people
living under government of their own choosing for the first time. Our economy is the healthiest in
a generation and the strongest in the world. Our culture, our science, our technology are on the
cutting edge. We have experienced the largest drop in violent crime in over three decades, and
we have seen the largest drop in the welfare rolls in 50 years.
Of course, we face threats to our progress. Abroad, we must build new alliances for
peace and security. We must battle against terrorism and drugs and avert the spread of new and
deadly weapons of mass destruction. At home, we ensure that every child .has the chance you
have had to develop your God-given capacities; we must prepare for the retirement of the baby
boom generation; we must harness the forces of science and technology so they serve the public
good; and we must keep working for the balance of freedom and responsibility necessary to build
stronger families and communities.
But the greatest challenge we face here is also our greatest opportunity: Can we become
the world's first truly multiracial, multiethnic democracy? Will we be one America in the 21st
Century? If we do not, all the wonders of modern technology cannot save the American idea from
�basic human frailty. If we do, there will be no limits to the American Dream, and to our capacity
to lead the world away from ancient hatreds toward brighter days.
Within me next three years, here in California, no single race or ethnic group will make up
a majority of the state's population. Already 5 of our largest school districts draw students from
over 100 different racial and ethnic groups. At this campus, 12 Nobel Prize winners have taught
or studied - from 9 different countries. Half a century from now, when your own grandchildren
are in college, it is possible that a majority of our population will be Latino, African American,
Asian American, Native American and other people of color.
We know what we will look like - but what will we be like?(Can we be one America,
respecting, even celebrating our differences, but embracing even more strongly what we have in
common?
Our hearts long to answer yes, but our history reminds us that it will be hard. The ideals
that bind us together are as old as our nation, but so are the forces that would pull us apart. The
striving to surmount those forces is the story of America.
We were born with a Declaration of Independence which asserted that it is self evident
that we are all created equal — and a Constitution that enshrined slavery.
We fought a bloody civil war to abolish that slavery and preserve the union — but we
remained a house divided and unequal, by law, for another century.
We advanced across this continent in the name of freedom - yet in so doing we pushed
the Native Americans off their land, often crushing their culture and their livelihoods.
Our Statue of Liberty welcomes poor, tired, huddled masses of immigrants to our borders
— but each new wave has felt the sting of discrimination.
In World War II, Japanese Americans fought valiantly for freedom in Europe, taking great
casualties — while at home their families were herded into internment camps.
In our own time, no one doubts we are closer than ever to our ideal of one America, but
no close observer denies that there is still discrimination, stereotyping and misunderstanding in
America that keeps our house divided.
The complexity of these issues has multiplied with our growing diversity. To be sure,
there is old, unfinished business between black and white Americans, reflecting the bitter legacy of
discrimination. But the classic American dilemma in many ways has become a new American
dilemma. We see tension between blacks and Hispanic customers and their Korean or Arab
grocers. We see a resurgent anti-Semitism, even against college students. We see hostility
�toward immigrants, even those who through hard work and family spirit, have succeeded in their
new land.
In spite of these difficulties, we are more integrated than ever. More of us share
neighborhoods, work, school, social and community activities, religious life, even love and
marriage across racial lines, than ever before. More of us enjoy each other's distinctive cultures
than ever before.
And that is more important than ever before, to all of us. First, our nation of many nations
now competes in a global economy. With just one 20th of the world's population, the only way
for America to prosper is to export - to market to the 95% of the world's consumers who live
beyond our borders. Americans, drawn from every culture on earth, are uniquely positioned to
link our land with the rest of the globe through currents of commerce and communications.
Moreover, our brilliant diversity can help America light the entire globe. Today's
international threats demand more cooperation, from more nations, than ever before. We can
prove to the people of Belfast and Bosnia, of Rwanda and the Middle East, that freedom is the
best organizing principle for a multiethnic society. We can only unite the world if we are united
ourselves.
That is why I ask the American people to join me now, over the next year, in rededicating
ourselves to our central ideal — that we are many people, but one nation, bound together by
shared values, rooted in the essential dignity of every Amerian's life and liberty. That is the core
of the American idea: a community of equal, free, responsible citizens. And this is our moment —
when there is more cause for hope than fear. There will never be a better time to work together,
learn together, and act together, to build one America.
The problems we face
First, let's start with the facts. The search for common ground must begin with agreement
on common facts.
Three decades ago, when I was the age of those graduating today, all America saw the
brutality of police dogs set on civil rights marchers in Birmingham, and they saw the dignity of
Cesar Chavez fighting for workers rights in the farm fields. Most Americans agreed then on what
the problems were. Today, we know we still have problems, but we're not sure what they are.
Let me give you just one example. According to a recent Gallup Poll, substantial numbers
of both blacks and whites think that the black population is somewhere between 20 and 49%. In
fact, it's 12%.
Here are some more facts.
�It simply isn't true that immigrants don't want to learn English. In some cities, classes
teaching English as a second language classes late into the night.
Most people on welfare ... are white.
The people most at risk of being victimized by violent crime . . . are black.
And while the black middle class has doubled since Dr. King's murder, the rate of poverty
among black children is the same - children cut off from the work and values that shape our
society, falling prey to the many pathologies of ingrained poverty.
How we solve the glaring disparities in our society, how we bring every person to the
table of opportunity, and how we learn to better live together will ultimately determine how we
do as a nation in the generations to come and whether we can truly come together as One
America.
TO COME:
What we must do
- opportunity (incl. education & affirmative action)
- responsibility (crime/criminal justice issues, civil rights enforcement)
- dialogue to build a stronger community — including service
�10:30pm - SECOND SECTION
What we must do
Our first imperative must be to continue expand opportunity for all who would work for
it Our strong and growing economy is the best antidote to envy and despair and racism. Now
we must press forward — moving millions more from welfare to work, bringing the spark of
enterprise to our inner cities, redoubling our efforts to reach those rural communities that
prosperity has passed by. With the old welfare system a thing of the past, we have it within our
power to end replace it with dignity and hope and work — and that must be our national
responsibility.
And if opportunity is to be made real in this new economy, we must give all our young
people the best education in the world. There are no children who cannot meet the highest
standards, if we give them well-trained teachers and well-equipped classrooms. And at a time
when college education means stability, a good job, a passport to the middle class, we must open
the doors of college wider than ever before. And we cannot allow them to be slammed shut for
any of our people.
I know affirmative action is not perfect; that's why two years ago, we began our effort to
fix the things that are wrong with affirmative action. But affirmative action, when used the right
way, does work. It has given us a whole generation of professionals infieldsthat used to be
exclusive clubs. There are now more women-owned businesses than ever before. More AfricanAmerican, Latino and Asian-American lawyers and judges than ever before. But the best example
of what affirmative action can do is in our military. Our armed forces are the most diverse in the
world at all levels - and they are the best in the world. In our military, you get the training and
the opportunity to move up. Everyone who is promoted is qualified. And that's the way it should
work.
I know that many people in California voted to repeal affirmative action, and did so
without ill motive. But the results are dramatic and devastating. Enrollments in law school and
other graduate programs are plummeting for the first time in decades. Some of the brightest
students won't even apply ~ they feel so unwelcome. Soon the same will likely happen in college.
Call it what you will - but I call it resegregation. I have seen the damage segregation brought to
the South. America cannot make that mistake again.
There are those who say that scores on standardized tests should be the sole measure of
qualification. But they do not apply that equally to the children of alumni, or those with athletic
ability. I say: a student body that reflects excellence and diversity has value, too. When young
people sit side by side with people of many backgrounds, that enhances their education, it does
not undercut it. California would not be better off if there were a University of California for
Latinos, a University of California for Asian-Americans.
�These young people work hard. They achieve. And then, many of them go out and serve
communities that need them for their expertise and as role models. Close the door on them, and
we will weaken our great universities, and we will never build the society we need in the 21st
century.
No one — in all these years ~ has found a better way to combat discrimination than
affirmative action. They say, "Just get rid of it." One day, we will be able to get rid of it - but
that day has not yet come. Today, discrimination goes on, and for that reason, so should
affirmative action.
Our second imperative must be to demand responsibility from every American.Our
strength as a society depends upon all of us giving back to those around us, taking responsibility
for ourselves and our families, teaching our children right from wrong, working hard and obeying
the law.
The fight against crime is a fight for the freedom of all of our people ~ including those
living in the poorest neighborhoods. We are putting 100,000 new community police on the
streets, but our minority communities are still underserved. People in our poorest neighborhoods,
trapped behind triple locked doors, need more police protection, not less. We know, too, that
authority can be abused and brutal force used on some of our citizens. So as we call for all our
citizens to respect the law, we need the law to respect all our citizens.
And we must remember that discrimination is not only wrong, it is illegal. Our civil rights
agencies are among the most critical law enforcement agencies in the government ~ and we must
give them the resources they need to end the crushing backlog of cases and get the job done. It's
time for Congress to put our money where our ideals are. [hotting discrimination?]
And our third imperative is in many ways the most difficult of all: we must begin a candid,
far-ranging examination of the issues of race and our diversity.
We must recognize that we cannot come to solutions or even truly identify our problems
unless we are willing to be honest with each other. It's time to let down our guards, and to be
honest with people different from ourselves. We have talked at each other and about each other.
It is high time we begin talking with each other.
Over the coming year, I want to lead the American people in a great and unprecedented
conversation about race. I have asked one of America's greatest scholars, Dr. John Hope
Franklin to chair an advisory panel of seven distinguished Americans. He will be joined by former
Governors Tom Kean and William Winter, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Suzan Johnson Hope,
Angela Oh, and Robert Thomas — distinguished citizens, leaders in their community, who will
work with me in a searching examination of the truth about the changing face of America.
�We will examine the stereotypes and the facts - the myths and the reality - that hold us
apart. And in one year's time, I will report directly to the American people about what I have
found and the what actions we must take to move our nation forward.
This cannot be the work of a President or a commission alone. We must summon the
energy and commitment of leaders in every community and every walk of life, leaders who will
reach out across the lines that divide us — reforming and renewing our schools, cleaning up
pollution, taking back our streets from crime and drugs. New leaders, schooled in the challenging
art of racial healing, flexible in mind and determined in spirit.
As I said at the President's Service Summit in Philadelphia, in our new era, such acts of
service are basic acts of citizenship. Government can and must play its role. But citizens in every
walk of life must step up to this challenge if we are going to move forward together. All
Americans are nourished when they break bread with people different from themselves. All our
faiths can be strengthened when churches, mosques, synagogues exchange congregations for a
day. All our young people can learn from those who are different from themselves.
I know that honest dialogue and exchange will not be easy at first. We need to get past
defensiveness, fear, political correctness and other barriers to honesty. Emotions may be rubbed
raw, but we must begin.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we do nothing but propose disconnected acts of policy, that will be too little. But if 10
years from now, people can look back and see that America's commitment to our ideals was
renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King generation has met its
obligations of full citizenship, then this effort will have been a success.
Conclusion: why this matters
I am convinced that we can have the prosperity, the security, the influence in the world we
want, only if we are One America.
But the real benefit of our endeavors is more basic. Only in One America can any citizen
be fully free, able to fully enjoy life in a society at peace with itself. In one America, life will be
more rewarding, more interesting, and more fun. Only when we are bound together by shared
values, shared aspirations, shared opportunities and mutual respect can we live our lives to the
fullest.
Living in islands of isolation — some splendid, some sordid — is not the American way.
Basing our self-esteem on the ability to look down on others is not the American way.
For two centuries, wave upon wave of immigrants have come to our shores, to work, to
�raise their families, to build a new life; speaking many tongues, wearing the garb of many cultures,
drawn here by the promise of freedom and a fair chance. No matter what they found, from
bigotry to violence, most of them never gave up on America. Even African-Americans ~ the first
of whom were brought here in chains - never gave up on America.
If we cannot build our One America now, at the moment of our greatest prosperity, at the
pinnacle of our influence in the world, when can we? If we cannot build one America now, when
we know we don't have a person to waste, and we know we don't have a person to waste in the
global economy, when can we? If we cannot build one America now, when we see, from Belfast
to Bosnia, from Rwanda to the West Bank, the awful price of hatred and division, when can we?
Almost exactly 139 years ago, Abraham Lincoln warned us that "a house divided against
itself cannot stand." But what a house we can build together, with a deep foundation of freedom,
beautiful windows open to the world, rooms for all our families, with doors open to our
neighbors.
Those who say we cannot transform the problem of prejudice into the promise of diversity
forget how far we have come^Class of 1997, you are the future. The Congressmen and members
of the Administratioo^whtTare here, you are the future.
We have come a long way. We have torn down the barriers in our laws. Now we must
break down the barriers in our lives, our minds and our hearts. More than 30 years ago, at the
high tide of the civil rights movement, the Kerner Commission said that we were becoming two
Americas, one black, one white, separate and unequal. Today, we face a choice: will we become,
not two, but many Americas, separate, unequal and isolated. Or will we draw strength from our
great diversity and our ancient faith in equality and human dignity, to become the world's first
truly multiracial democracy? That is the unfinished work of our times.
Much of the burden, and most of the benefits, of this work lie with you, the young people
here today and throughout our land. As Dr. King reminded us, there is real power in our dreams.
So, dream large. Aim high. Challenge your elders. And teach your children well.
We can be, we must be, one America.
# # #
I grew up in the segregated South, of segregated schools,
movies, swimming pools, with "whites only" signs on public
restrooms and drinking fountains. There were people who
�Draft: 6/9/97 3:30 pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
RECONCILIATION
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT SAN DIEGO
JUNE 14, 1997
[following acknowledgments, etc.One of them was your own Chancellor, xxx, who as a freedom
rider fought for the right of African Americans to ride on Interstate buses. ]
Thank you for inviting me here today and thank you for offering our nation a shining
example of diversity and strength. Here at UCSD, whites, Asian-Americans, Latinos, African
Americans and Native Americans leam and live side by side. You have produced 12 Nobel
Laureates, bom in 9 different countries. You're so diverse, you even have a surfing doctor on
your faculty. Your diversity, along with your excellence in science and technology, and your
emphasis on the Pacific Rim and Latin America, make you one of the most forward looking
universities in the nation.
When I first became President I said I had three great goals to prepare America for the
new century. I wanted to create a country where the American Dream of opportunity was alive
for all Americans, where America was coming together as a responsible community, not being
divided, and where we continued to be the world's leading force for peace and freedom.
Unemployment is at the lowest level in 24 years. Our economy has created more than 12
million new jobs. Our society is becoming more cohesive. We had the biggest drop in crime in
36 years last year. We are seeing an historic drop in the welfare rolls and we are putting in place
an effective welfare-to-work strategy. We have made significant progress in reconciling our
differences as a society.
We have made all this progress, but there is one thing that could hold us back - racial
and ethnic divisions. Nothing can hold us back more than these divisions; nothing can give us
more strength than if we come together.
I have come here today to set out the work that we must do as a people — and that you
must take on as your mission — to guarantee America's prosperity, freedom and future, but most
of all, to ensure that in the next century, we will be the greatest multi-racial, multi-ethnic
democracy the world has ever known. The great civil rights leader, W.E.B. Du Bois, predicted
that race would be the number one problem of the 20th Century. And, in many ways he was
right. At times, in this century, in flames and in anger, racial conflict almost consumed us. And
it was only during those times of crisis that we faced this issue squarely. Now, at a time of great
hope, there is no crisis. Now is the moment to forestall future crises. Our great and growing
diversity must not be the number one problem of the 21st century. To the contrary, it must be
our great promise. We will only do that if we are willing to leam from each other, talk to each
other and take action.
�Beginning today, I want to lead the American people in a great and unprecedented
conversation about race. I have asked one of America's greatest scholars, Dr. John Hope
Franklin of [Duke? Universityl, to chair an advisory panel of distinguished Americans.
(OTHER NAMES]
We will examine the stereotypes and the facts - the myths and the reality - that hold
us apart. We will ask Americans to talk to one another, at four town meetings that I will
conduct over the next year. And in one year's time, I will report directly to the American
people about what I have found and what we must do.
This is a significant undertaking for me and for this nation. But there is no moral
question more fundamental and no endeavor more important for the President of the
United States to do at this time.
Let us all agree: Racism and prejudice are wrong. They have been wrong whenever they
have occurred in our history ~ from the injustices heaped upon the Native Americans to the
enslavement of Africans to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the
mistreatment of brown skinned migrant and farm workers. Prejudice and contempt aimed at
newcomers to America have held us back time and again and they threaten us still.
I am a son of the South and the grandson of a man who taught me a valuable lesson at a
young age. He allowed that yes, I was different than the black children who came into his small
grocery store, but I was no better. But I could see that on the black side of town, streets were left
unpaved. And segregation was legally sanctioned — swimming pools, drinking fountains, public
restrooms and movie houses — separated white from black. I was 11 years old when President
Eisenhower ordered troops into Little Rock so that 9 black children could integrate Central High.
And when I was your age and in school in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King was killed and
the streets exploded in flames. I will never forget the pain and anger I saw.
For more than two centuries, the curse of racism has been the greatest stumbling block to
our progress. Our streets are not now on fire, but we must address this question of race and
diversity now, because in the new century, the face of America will undergo a dramatic change.
It has already begun.
There are already more people of Irish heritage in Massachusetts than in Dublin; more
people of Italian heritage in New York City than in Palermo, Venice, Florence and Genoa. Onehalf century from now, when your own grandchildren are in college, one out of every four people
will be Latino. And it is entirely conceivable that a majority of the population will be African
Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans and other people of color.
Within the next three years, right here in California, no single race or ethnic group will
make up as much as half the state's population. There are now five school districts in this
�country where more than 100 languages are spoken by students. And the demand by newcomers
to leam English is so great that some cities are conducting 'round the clock English as a second
language classes and still the demand cannot be met.
We must address this question now, as well, because this burgeoning diversity can
be our greatest strength in the new century.
In the global economy, we will prosper through trade with every nation and every people
on Earth. We are dynamic and open and that gives us a decided advantage over stagnant
societies around the world. Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers lie outside our shores,
and in the furture we will earn our prosperity by selling abroad.
In the information age, our greatest resource will be the minds and talents of our people.
We do not have a person to waste. I am proud that I have appointed more minority and women
judges to the Federal bench than any other President. And far more of my judicial appointments
have received the highest rating from the American Bar Association. We send the most diverse
teams to the Olympics and bring home the most medals. Our armed forces are the best in the
world, and they are also the most diverse. When our armed forces can patrol the streets of
Sarajevo, Serbian-Americans and Croat-Americans serve side by side. And in a world bound
ever more closely by currents of commerce and communication, America's diversity will be an
example to the entire family of nations.
And we must address this question now not only because it can be our greatest
strength but also because we know it can be our greatest weakness.
We still see prejudice all around us: The inability of a black man to hail a cab after dark
downtown. The indignity of a Latina being followed around in a department store. The
resentment toward Asian Americans who achieve. The assumption that someone who is poor
and white is also not intelligent. Church burnings and hate crimes. Job and housing
discrimination.
The great changes in our nation risk tearing open festering wounds. No country has
ever gone through the kind of change in our ethnic makeup that the United States will
undergo without facing major upheaval. With the end of the cold war, old hatreds and
divisions are thawing. People who look the same and share a common history, nonetheless are
trying to annihilate each other. Look at Chiapas, Chechnya, Rwanda. And consider the tensions
in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, even next door in Canada. It falls to us to make sure this can never
happen in America.
Progress is not inevitable; too often throughout our history, the tide of racial
progress has come in, only to recede, leaving in its wake dashed hopes and shattered
dreams.
�You have a college here named after the great Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall
led the fight to end segregation in America's public schools. It was 30 years ago yesterday that
he became the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court. Justice Marshall buried the
notion of "separate but equal," and the years have shown us that it was the right thing to do. But
today, we are in danger of exhuming that failed policy from its grave with the elimination of
affirmative action in higher education here in California and in Texas.
Proposition 209 is a bad deal for America. Just look at what it is doing to graduate school
admission here in California. Last year there were 78 Latinos in the entering class at UC
Berkeley Law School. This year half that number -- 39 were admitted. Last year there were 75
African Americans in that same class — this year only 14. The same thing is happening in Texas
as result of the Hopwood case.
This stunning drop is not because they were not qualified; but because they did
not welcome and many have already stopped applying here and in Texas. This is appalling. My
fellow Americans, we say we believe in opportunity for all. Well, education is the key to that.
And I tell you, we can never build the kind of future we want, if we slam shut the door of
educational opportunity and resegregate higher education.
It is clear: the face of America is evolving. And, I will tell you, we cannot greet that fact
with indifference; we cannot run away from it; we cannot retreat into racial and ethnic enclaves
of isolation. And we cannot pretend that the changing face of America is invisible. We must
look in the mirror and ask the question anew: What does it mean to be an American? How we
answer that question will determine our future.
That is the question that John Hope Franklin and the other members of our advisory
board will help me to study as we engage the American people in a year-long dialogue, to
challenge our perceptions and to seek out the truth.
I will ask them, and the American people, to do two things at once. First, we must find
• ways to honor and celebrate our diversity. We no longer expect America to be a melting pot,
where everyone blends into an indistinguishable mass. We know that our rich stew of cultures
and backgrounds gives us a vitality and texture that no other country has.
But we also know that different groups in America at various times, have been labeled,
ridiculed and mistreated. That is wrong. And it helps to explain why some groups have created
their own subculture apart from the mainstream. In some cases this has been used to bolster
wounded self esteem. But in other cases it has taken on the self destructive form of gangs and
angry alienation. That is wrong too and it is not the kind of America that we want to leave to our
children.
And at the same time we respect diversity, we must with even greater fervor find ways to
honor our unity — we must find new ways to unite around our common creed. Being an
�American means accepting that we are not a nation united by a single race, or a single religion or
even a single history. What unites us is the vision of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, our
Declaration of Independence — the best models ever created by humankind for a fair, just and
free society. Being an American means always trying to live up to those ideals. We have not
always done that well, but we have never stopped trying and our people, even those who have
suffered the most, have never lost faith that these ideals would produce a better day.
We cannot simply honor diversity - and we cannot simply demand unity. All too often,
people of goodwill insist on focusing on those things that unite us, without first acknowledging
those ties of ethnicity, religion or race that give our country its marvelous variety. That is a
mistake we cannot make. In 1997, and the century to come, we must honor our diversity if we
are ever to forge a new unity.
We have grappled with this before. Thirty years ago, the Kerner Commission
warned us we were in danger of becoming two nations, one black, one white, separate and
unequal. Today, we are in danger of becoming many nations, separate, unequal and
isolated. Yes, we may live closer together, but our hearts are still too far apart.
That is why our Advisory Board will take a hard look at some hard questions: Does
the criminal justice system treat whites and minorities differently? Are there still barriers
to equal housing? What must we do to make sure all our citizens, especially in our urban
and rural areas are benefitting from the extraordinary prosperity most of America enjoys?
What steps can we take to eliminate the glaring disparities in education and health care?
I have always believed that a strong economy, that is producing jobs and lifting everyone
up, is the best way to help every American live to his or her fullest potential. Today, that means
passing a balanced budget that is in balance with our values. It means increasing our investment
in education. And it means demanding more personal responsibility and more of a partnership
between government, citizens and all sectors of society.
We also must remain vigilant in our fight against discrimination. We must enforce our
laws and make sure they are applied equally and fairly.
And finally, we must do something together that may sound simple, but it is not. We
must talk to each other.
Today, discriminatory laws have been torn down. More of us are working together,
living side-by-side, even intermarrying than ever before. But we know that stereotypes — some
ugly, some benign, but all destructive ~ still keep us apart. We know that there are two or three
or more ways of looking at the world and at each other. We know that blacks and whites can
look at the same event and see two different things; hear the same remark and hear two different
meanings.
�We have talked at each other and about each other. It is high time we begin talking with
each other. We need a great national conversation about race and diversity to acknowledge
frankly those things that divide us, precisely so we can move beyond them to those things that
unite us.
I know that honest dialogue will not be easy at first. It may open wounds, but that is how
we begin the healing so that we may move past them and live in unity.
Let's start with the truth. To whites, I say, do not pretend there is no prejudice. We will
never get beyond this problem, unless we first acknowledge its existence.
To the grandchildren of European immigrants: Do not pull up the ladder from the new
immigrants who come here for the same reason and with the same values as your ancestors.
To minorities, especially young black and Hispanic men and women: Do not let real or
imagined racism cause you to retreat into enclaves of anger and isolation.
And to all Americans; do not use prejudice and discrimination as an excuse for
lawlessness, hatred or self-destruction. It is not racist to insist that our immigration laws be
obeyed. Racism is no excuse for black on black crime any more than it is for white on white
crime.
What is needed is not another commission, issuing yet another report. This time, the
President will lead the effort. This time, the panel will recruit local leaders to engage their
communities in this great national dialogue. This time, it will be the responsibility of the
President to report to the nation in about one year's time.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we propose nothing but policy ideas that are merely small gestures along the way, that
will be too little. But if 10 years from now, people can look back and see that America's
commitment to our ideals was renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King
generation finally shouldered its fair burden in this historic struggle, then this effort will have
been a success.
America is the ideal that people all over the world strive for. We have always given hope
to people struggling for peace and democracy. You need only say the word, "America" anyplace
in the world, and the image is instantaneous. It is a portrait of the best of the human spirit. We
have always shown the world how to live together in diversity. If we take action today to heal
our lingering racial and ethnic divisions, I strongly believe we can continue to play this
important role. America's best days lie ahead. We have what it takes to be the greatest multiracial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy the world has ever known — a place where
differences are not merely tolerated, but celebrated.
�Let us remember where America started, how far we have come, and let us never forget
how much farther we must go. Much of the burden - and all the benefits -- will lie with you and
the generations to come. We must look forward to the day when race and ethnicity are not
America's constant obsession - when the color of the skin is no more important than the color of
your hair. We must recommit ourselves to our long national journey to become One America.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
�Draft: 6/9/97 3:30 pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
RECONCILIATION
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT SAN DIEGO
JUNE 14, 1997
[following acknowledgments, etc.One of them was your own Chancellor, xxx, who as a freedom
rider fought for the right of African Americans to ride on Interstate buses. ]
Thank you for inviting me here today and thank you for offering our nation a shining
example of diversity and strength. Here at UCSD, whites, Asian-Americans, Latinos, African
Americans and Native Americans leam and live side by side. You have produced 12 Nobel
Laureates, bom in 9 different countries. You're so diverse, you even have a surfing doctor on
your faculty. Your diversity, along with your excellence in science and technology, and your
emphasis on the Pacific Rim and Latin America, make you one of the most forward looking
universities in the nation.
When I first became President I said I had three great goals to prepare America for the
new century. I wanted to create a country where the American Dream of opportunity was alive
for all Americans, where America was coming together as a responsible community, not being
divided, and where we continued to be the world's leading force for peace and freedom.
Unemployment is at the lowest level in 24 years. Our economy has created more than 12
million new jobs. Our society is becoming more cohesive. We had the biggest drop in crime in
36 years last year. We are seeing an historic drop in the welfare rolls and we are putting in place
an effective welfare-to-work strategy. We have made significant progress in reconciling our
differences as a society.
We have made all this progress, but there is one thing that could hold us back - racial
and ethnic divisions. Nothing can hold us back more than these divisions; nothing can give us
more strength than if we come together.
I have come here today to set out the work that we must do as a people — and that you
must take on as your mission - to guarantee America's prosperity, freedom and future, but most
of all, to ensure that in the next century, we will be the greatest multi-racial, multi-ethnic
democracy the world has ever known. The great civil rights leader, W.E.B. Du Bois, predicted
that race would be the number one problem of the 20th Century. And, in many ways he was
right. At times, in this century, in flames and in anger, racial conflict almost consumed us. And
it was only during those times of crisis that we faced this issue squarely. Now, at a time of great
hope, there is no crisis. Now is the moment to forestall future crises. Our great and growing
diversity must not be the number one problem of the 21st century. To the contrary, it must be
our great promise. We will only do that if we are willing to leam from each other, talk to each
other and take action.
�Beginning today, I want to lead the American people in a great and unprecedented
conversation about race. I have asked one of America's greatest scholars, Dr. John Hope
Franklin of [Duke? University], to chair an advisory panel of distinguished Americans.
[OTHER NAMES]
We will examine the stereotypes and the facts - the myths and the reality - that hold
us apart. We will ask Americans to talk to one another, at four town meetings that I will
conduct over the next year. And in one year's time, I will report directly to the American
people about what I have found and what we must do.
This is a significant undertaking for me and for this nation. But there is no moral
question more fundamental and no endeavor more important for the President of the
United States to do at this time.
Let us all agree: Racism and prejudice are wrong. They have been wrong whenever they
have occurred in our history — from the injustices heaped upon the Native Americans to the
enslavement of Africans to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the
mistreatment of brown skinned migrant and farm workers. Prejudice and contempt aimed at
newcomers to America have held us back time and again and they threaten us still.
I am a son of the South and the grandson of a man who taught me a valuable lesson at a
young age. He allowed that yes, I was different than the black children who came into his small
grocery store, but I was no better. But I could see that on the black side of town, streets were left
unpaved. And segregation was legally sanctioned - swimming pools, drinking fountains, public
restrooms and movie houses — separated white from black. I was 11 years old when President
Eisenhower ordered troops into Little Rock so that 9 black children could integrate Central High.
And when I was your age and in school in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King was killed and
the streets exploded in flames. I will never forget the pain and anger I saw.
For more than two centuries, the curse of racism has been the greatest stumbling block to
our progress. Our streets are not now on fire, but we must address this question of race and
diversity now, because in the new century, the face of America will undergo a dramatic change.
It has already begun.
There are already more people of Irish heritage in Massachusetts than in Dublin; more
people of Italian heritage in New York City than in Palermo, Venice, Florence and Genoa. Onehalf century from now, when your own grandchildren are in college, one out of every four people
will be Latino. And it is entirely conceivable that a majority of the population will be African
Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans and other people of color.
Within the next three years, right here in California, no single race or ethnic group will
make up as much as half the state's population. There are now five school districts in this
�country where more than 100 languages are spoken by students. And the demand by newcomers
to leam English is so great that some cities are conducting 'round the clock English as a second
language classes and still the demand cannot be met.
We must address this question now, as well, because this burgeoning diversity can
be our greatest strength in the new century.
In the global economy, we will prosper through trade with every nation and every people
on Earth. We are dynamic and open and that gives us a decided advantage over stagnant
societies around the world. Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers lie outside our shores,
and in the furture we will earn our prosperity by selling abroad.
In the information age, our greatest resource will be the minds and talents of our people.
We do not have a person to waste. I am proud that I have appointed more minority and women
judges to the Federal bench than any other President. And far more of my judicial appointments
have received the highest rating from the American Bar Association. We send the most diverse
teams to the Olympics and bring home the most medals. Our armed forces are the best in the
world, and they are also the most diverse. When our armed forces can patrol the streets of
Sarajevo, Serbian-Americans and Croat-Americans serve side by side. And in a world bound
ever more closely by currents of commerce and communication, America's diversity will be an
example to the entire family of nations.
And we must address this question now not only because it can be our greatest
strength but also because we know it can be our greatest weakness.
We still see prejudice all around us: The inability of a black man to hail a cab after dark
downtown. The indignity of a Latina being followed around in a department store. The
resentment toward Asian Americans who achieve. The assumption that someone who is poor
and white is also not intelligent. Church burnings and hate crimes. Job and housing
discrimination.
The great changes in our nation risk tearing open festering wounds. No country has
ever gone through the kind of change in our ethnic makeup that the United States will
undergo without facing major upheaval. With the end of the cold war, old hatreds and
divisions are thawing. People who look the same and share a common history, nonetheless are
trying to annihilate each other. Look at Chiapas, Chechnya, Rwanda. And consider the tensions
in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, even next door in Canada. It falls to us to make sure this can never
happen in America.
Progress is not inevitable; too often throughout our history, the tide of racial
progress has come in, only to recede, leaving in its wake dashed hopes and shattered
dreams.
�You have a college here named after the great Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall
led the fight to end segregation in America's public schools. It was 30 years ago yesterday that
he became the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court. Justice Marshall buried the
notion of "separate but equal," and the years have shown us that it was the right thing to do. But
today, we are in danger of exhuming that failed policy from its grave with the elimination of
affirmative action in higher education here in California and in Texas.
Proposition 209 is a bad deal for America. Just look at what it is doing to graduate school
admission here in California. Last year there were 78 Latinos in the entering class at UC
Berkeley Law School. This year half that number — 39 were admitted. Last year there were 75
African Americans in that same class - this year only 14. The same thing is happening in Texas
as result of the Hopwood case.
This stunning drop is not because they were not qualified; but because they did
not welcome and many have already stopped applying here and in Texas. This is appalling. My
fellow Americans, we say we believe in opportunity for all. Well, education is the key to that.
And I tell you, we can never build the kind of future we want, if we slam shut the door of
educational opportunity and resegregate higher education.
It is clear: the face of America is evolving. And, I will tell you, we cannot greet that fact
with indifference; we cannot run away from it; we cannot retreat into racial and ethnic enclaves
of isolation. And we cannot pretend that the changing face of America is invisible. We must
look in the mirror and ask the question anew: What does it mean to be an American? How we
answer that question will determine our future.
That is the question that John Hope Franklin and the other members of our advisory
board will help me to study as we engage the American people in a year-long dialogue, to
challenge our perceptions and to seek out the truth.
I will ask them, and the American people, to do two things at once. First, we must find
ways to honor and celebrate our diversity. We no longer expect America to be a melting pot,
where everyone blends into an indistinguishable mass. We know that our rich stew of cultures
and backgrounds gives us a vitality and texture that no other country has.
But we also know that different groups in America at various times, have been labeled,
ridiculed and mistreated. That is wrong. And it helps to explain why some groups have created
their own subculture apart from the mainstream. In some cases this has been used to bolster
wounded self esteem. But in other cases it has taken on the self destructive form of gangs and
angry alienation. That is wrong too and it is not the kind of America that we want to leave to our
children.
And at the same time we respect diversity, we must with even greater fervor find ways to
honor our unity — we must find new ways to unite around our common creed. Being an
�American means accepting that we are not a nation united by a single race, or a single religion or
even a single history. What unites us is the vision of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, our
Declaration of Independence — the best models ever created by humankind for a fair, just and
free society. Being an American means always trying to live up to those ideals. We have not
always done that well, but we have never stopped trying and our people, even those who have
suffered the most, have never lost faith that these ideals would produce a better day.
We cannot simply honor diversity - and we cannot simply demand unity. All too often,
people of goodwill insist on focusing on those things that unite us, without first acknowledging
those ties of ethnicity, religion or race that give our country its marvelous variety. That is a
mistake we cannot make. In 1997, and the century to come, we must honor our diversity if we
are ever to forge a new unity.
We have grappled with this before. Thirty years ago, the Kerner Commission
warned us we were in danger of becoming two nations, one black, one white, separate and
unequal. Today, we are in danger of becoming many nations, separate, unequal and
isolated. Yes, we may live closer together, but our hearts are still too far apart.
That is why our Advisory Board will take a hard look at some hard questions: Does
the criminal justice system treat whites and minorities differently? Are there still barriers
to equal housing? What must we do to make sure all our citizens, especially in our urban
and rural areas are benefitting from the extraordinary prosperity most of America enjoys?
What steps can we take to eliminate the glaring disparities in education and health care?
I have always believed that a strong economy, that is producing jobs and lifting everyone
up, is the best way to help every American live to his or her fullest potential. Today, that means
passing a balanced budget that is in balance with our values. It means increasing our investment
in education. And it means demanding more personal responsibility and more of a partnership
between government, citizens and all sectors of society.
We also must remain vigilant in our fight against discrimination. We must enforce our
laws and make sure they are applied equally and fairly.
And finally, we must do something together that may sound simple, but it is not. We
must talk to each other.
Today, discriminatory laws have been torn down. More of us are working together,
living side-by-side, even intermarrying than ever before. But we know that stereotypes — some
ugly, some benign, but all destructive - still keep us apart. We know that there are two or three
or more ways of looking at the world and at each other. We know that blacks and whites can
look at the same event and see two different things; hear the same remark and hear two different
meanings.
�We have talked at each other and about each other. It is high time we begin talking with
each other. We need a great national conversation about race and diversity to acknowledge
frankly those things that divide us, precisely so we can move beyond them to those things that
unite us.
I know that honest dialogue will not be easy at first. It may open wounds, but that is how
we begin the healing so that we may move past them and live in unity.
Let's start with the truth. To whites, I say, do not pretend there is no prejudice. We will
never get beyond this problem, unless we first acknowledge its existence.
To the grandchildren of European immigrants: Do not pull up the ladder from the new
immigrants who come here for the same reason and with the same values as your ancestors.
To minorities, especially young black and Hispanic men and women: Do not let real or
imagined racism cause you to retreat into enclaves of anger and isolation.
And to all Americans; do not use prejudice and discrimination as an excuse for
lawlessness, hatred or self-destruction. It is not racist to insist that our immigration laws be
obeyed. Racism is no excuse for black on black crime any more than it is for white on white
crime.
What is needed is not another commission, issuing yet another report. This time, the
President will lead the effort. This time, the panel will recruit local leaders to engage their
communities in this great national dialogue. This time, it will be the responsibility of the
President to report to the nation in about one year's time.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we propose nothing but policy ideas that are merely small gestures along the way, that
will be too little. But if 10 years from now, people can look back and see that America's
commitment to our ideals was renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King
generation finally shouldered its fair burden in this historic struggle, then this effort will have
been a success.
America is the ideal that people all over the world strive for. We have always given hope
to people struggling for peace and democracy. You need only say the word, "America" anyplace
in the world, and the image is instantaneous. It is a portrait of the best of the human spirit. We
have always shown the world how to live together in diversity. If we take action today to heal
our lingering racial and ethnic divisions, I strongly believe we can continue to play this
important role. America's best days lie ahead. We have what it takes to be the greatest multiracial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy the world has ever known - a place where
differences are not merely tolerated, but celebrated.
�Let us remember where America started, how far we have come, and let us never forget
how much farther we must go. Much of the burden — and all the benefits ~ will lie with you and
the generations to come. We must look forward to the day when race and ethnicity are not
America's constant obsession - when the color of the skin is no more important than the color of
your hair. We must recommit ourselves to our long national journey to become One America.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
�Draft: 6/9/97 3:30 pm
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
RECONCILIATION
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT SAN DIEGO
JUNE 14,1997
[following acknowledgments, etc.One of them was your own Chancellor, xxx, who as a freedom
rider fought for the right of African Americans to ride on Interstate buses. ]
Thank you for inviting me here today and thank you for offering our nation a shining
example of diversity and strength. Here at UCSD, whites, Asian-Americans, Latinos, African
Americans and Native Americans leam and live side by side. You have produced 12 Nobel
Laureates, bom in 9 different countries. You're so diverse, you even have a surfing doctor on
your faculty. Your diversity, along with your excellence in science and technology, and your
emphasis on the Pacific Rim and Latin America, make you one of the most forward looking
universities in the nation.
When I first became President I said I had three great goals to prepare America for the
new century. I wanted to create a country where the American Dream of opportunity was alive
for all Americans, where America was coming together as a responsible community, not being
divided, and where we continued to be the world's leading force for peace and freedom.
Unemployment is at the lowest level in 24 years. Our economy has created more than 12
million new jobs. Our society is becoming more cohesive. We had the biggest drop in crime in
36 years last year. We are seeing an historic drop in the welfare rolls and we are putting in place
an effective welfare-to-work strategy. We have made significant progress in reconciling our
differences as a society.
We have made all this progress, but there is one thing that could hold us back — racial
and ethnic divisions. Nothing can hold us back more than these divisions; nothing can give us
more strength than if we come together.
I have come here today to set out the work that we must do as a people -- and that you
must take on as your mission — to guarantee America's prosperity,freedomand future, but most
of all, to ensure that in the next century, we will be the greatest multi-racial, multi-ethnic
democracy the world has ever known. The great civil rights leader, W.E.B. Du Bois, predicted
that race would be the number one problem of the 20th Century. And, in many ways he was
right. At times, in this century, in flames and in anger, racial conflict almost consumed us. And
it was only during those times of crisis that we faced this issue squarely. Now, at a time of great
hope, there is no crisis. Now is the moment to forestall future crises. Our great and growing
diversity must not be the number one problem of the 21st century. To the contrary, it must be
our great promise. We will only do that if we are willing to leam from each other, talk to each
other and take action.
�Beginning today, I want to lead the American people in a great and unprecedented
conversation about race. I have asked one of America's greatest scholars, Dr. John Hope
Franklin of [Duke? University], to chair an advisory panel of distinguished Americans.
[OTHER NAMES]
We will examine the stereotypes and the facts - the myths and the reality - that hold
us apart. We will ask Americans to talk to one another, at four town meetings that I will
conduct over the next year. And in one year's time, I will report directly to the American
people about what I have found and what we must do.
This is a significant undertaking for me and for this nation. But there is no moral
question more fundamental and no endeavor more important for the President of the
United States to do at this time.
Let us all agree: Racism and prejudice are wrong. They have been wrong whenever they
have occurred in our history — from the injustices heaped upon the Native Americans to the
enslavement of Africans to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the
mistreatment of brown skinned migrant and farm workers. Prejudice and contempt aimed at
newcomers to America have held us back time and again and they threaten us still.
I am a son of the South and the grandson of a man who taught me a valuable lesson at a
young age. He allowed that yes, I was different than the black children who came into his small
grocery store, but I was no better. But I could see that on the black side of town, streets were left
unpaved. And segregation was legally sanctioned — swimming pools, drinking fountains, public
restrooms and movie houses - separated white from black. I was 11 years old when President
Eisenhower ordered troops into Little Rock so that 9 black children could integrate Central High.
And when I was your age and in school in Washington, DC, Martin Luther King was killed and
the streets exploded in flames. I will never forget the pain and anger I saw.
For more than two centuries, the curse of racism has been the greatest stumbling block to
our progress. Our streets are not now on fire, but we must address this question of race and
diversity now, because in the new century, the face of America will undergo a dramatic change.
It has already begun.
There are already more people of Irish heritage in Massachusetts than in Dublin; more
people of Italian heritage in New York City than in Palermo, Venice, Florence and Genoa. Onehalf century from now, when your own grandchildren are in college, one out of every four people
will be Latino. And it is entirely conceivable that a majority of the population will be African
Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans and other people of color.
Within the next three years, right here in California, no single race or ethnic group will
make up as much as half the state's population. There are now five school districts in this
�country where more than 100 languages are spoken by students. And the demand by newcomers
to leam English is so great that some cities are conducting 'round the clock English as a second
language classes and still the demand cannot be met.
We must address this question now, as well, because this burgeoning diversity can
be our greatest strength in the new century.
In the global economy, we will prosper through trade with every nation and every people
on Earth. We are dynamic and open and that gives us a decided advantage over stagnant
societies around the world. Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers lie outside our shores,
and in the furture we will earn our prosperity by selling abroad.
In the information age, our greatest resource will be the minds and talents of our people.
We do not have a person to waste. I am proud that I have appointed more minority and women
judges to the Federal bench than any other President. And far more of my judicial appointments
have received the highest rating from the American Bar Association. We send the most diverse
teams to the Olympics and bring home the most medals. Our armed forces are the best in the
world, and they are also the most diverse. When our armed forces can patrol the streets of
Sarajevo, Serbian-Americans and Croat-Americans serve side by side. And in a world bound
ever more closely by currents of commerce and communication, America's diversity will be an
example to the entire family of nations.
And we must address this question now not only because it can be our greatest
strength but also because we know it can be our greatest weakness.
We still see prejudice all around us: The inability of a black man to hail a cab after dark
downtown. The indignity of a Latina being followed around in a department store. The
resentment toward Asian Americans who achieve. The assumption that someone who is poor
and white is also not intelligent. Church burnings and hate crimes. Job and housing
discrimination.
The great changes in our nation risk tearing open festering wounds. No country has
ever gone through the kind of change in our ethnic makeup that the United States will
undergo without facing major upheaval. With the end of the cold war, old hatreds and
divisions are thawing. People who look the same and share a common history, nonetheless are
trying to annihilate each other. Look at Chiapas, Chechnya, Rwanda. And consider the tensions
in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, even next door in Canada. It falls to us to make sure this can never
happen in America.
Progress is not inevitable; too often throughout our history, the tide of racial
progress has come in, only to recede, leaving in its wake dashed hopes and shattered
dreams.
�You have a college here named after the great Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall
led the fight to end segregation in America's public schools. It was 30 years ago yesterday that
he became the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court. Justice Marshall buried the
notion of "separate but equal," and the years have shown us that it was the right thing to do. But
today, we are in danger of exhuming that failed policy from its grave with the elimination of
affirmative action in higher education here in California and in Texas.
Proposition 209 is a bad deal for America. Just look at what it is doing to graduate school
admission here in California. Last year there were 78 Latinos in the entering class at UC
Berkeley Law School. This year half that number -- 39 were admitted. Last year there were 75
African Americans in that same class — this year only 14. The same thing is happening in Texas
as result of the Hopwood case.
This stunning drop is not because they were not qualified; but because they did
not welcome and many have already stopped applying here and in Texas. This is appalling. My
fellow Americans, we say we believe in opportunity for all. Well, education is the key to that.
And I tell you, we can never build the kind of future we want, if we slam shut the door of
educational opportunity and resegregate higher education.
It is clear: the face of America is evolving. And, I will tell you, we cannot greet that fact
with indifference; we cannot run away from it; we cannot retreat into racial and ethnic enclaves
of isolation. And we cannot pretend that the changing face of America is invisible. We must
look in the mirror and ask the question anew: What does it mean to be an American? How we
answer that question will determine our future.
That is the question that John Hope Franklin and the other members of our advisory
board will help me to study as we engage the American people in a year-long dialogue, to
challenge our perceptions and to seek out the truth.
I will ask them, and the American people, to do two things at once. First, we must find
ways to honor and celebrate our diversity. We no longer expect America to be a melting pot,
where everyone blends into an indistinguishable mass. We know that our rich stew of cultures
and backgrounds gives us a vitality and texture that no other country has.
But we also know that different groups in America at various times, have been labeled,
ridiculed and mistreated. That is wrong. And it helps to explain why some groups have created
their own subculture apart from the mainstream. In some cases this has been used to bolster
wounded self esteem. But in other cases it has taken on the self destructive form of gangs and
angry alienation. That is wrong too and it is not the kind of America that we want to leave to our
children.
And at the same time we respect diversity, we must with even greater fervor find ways to
honor our unity — we must find new ways to unite around our common creed. Being an
�American means accepting that we are not a nation united by a single race, or a single religion or
even a single history. What unites us is the vision of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, our
Declaration of Independence - the best models ever created by humankind for a fair, just and
free society. Being an American means always trying to live up to those ideals. We have not
always done that well, but we have never stopped trying and our people, even those who have
suffered the most, have never lost faith that these ideals would produce a better day.
We cannot simply honor diversity - and we cannot simply demand unity. All too often,
people of goodwill insist on focusing on those things that unite us, without first acknowledging
those ties of ethnicity, religion or race that give our country its marvelous variety. That is a
mistake we cannot make. In 1997, and the century to come, we must honor our diversity if we
are ever to forge a new unity.
We have grappled with this before. Thirty years ago, the Kerner Commission
warned us we were in danger of becoming two nations, one black, one white, separate and
unequal. Today, we are in danger of becoming many nations, separate, unequal and
isolated. Yes, we may live closer together, but our hearts are still too far apart.
That is why our Advisory Board will take a hard look at some hard questions: Does
the criminal justice system treat whites and minorities differently? Are there still barriers
to equal housing? What must we do to make sure all our citizens, especially in our urban
and rural areas are benefitting from the extraordinary prosperity most of America enjoys?
What steps can we take to eliminate the glaring disparities in education and health care?
I have always believed that a strong economy, that is producing jobs and lifting everyone
up, is the best way to help every American live to his or her fullest potential. Today, that means
passing a balanced budget that is in balance with our values. It means increasing our investment
in education. And it means demanding more personal responsibility and more of a partnership
between government, citizens and all sectors of society.
We also must remain vigilant in our fight against discrimination. We must enforce our
laws and make sure they are applied equally and fairly.
And finally, we must do something together that may sound simple, but it is not. We
must talk to each other.
Today, discriminatory laws have been torn down. More of us are working together,
living side-by-side, even intermarrying than ever before. But we know that stereotypes - some
ugly, some benign, but all destructive - still keep us apart. We know that there are two or three
or more ways of looking at the world and at each other. We know that blacks and whites can
look at the same event and see two different things; hear the same remark and hear two different
meanings.
�We have talked at each other and about each other. It is high time we begin talking with
each other. We need a great national conversation about race and diversity to acknowledge
frankly those things that divide us, precisely so we can move beyond them to those things that
unite us.
I know that honest dialogue will not be easy at first. It may open wounds, but that is how
we begin the healing so that we may move past them and live in unity.
Let's start with the truth. To whites, I say, do not pretend there is no prejudice. We will
never get beyond this problem, unless we first acknowledge its existence.
To the grandchildren of European immigrants: Do not pull up the ladder from the new
immigrants who come here for the same reason and with the same values as your ancestors.
To minorities, especially young black and Hispanic men and women: Do not let real or
imagined racism cause you to retreat into enclaves of anger and isolation.
And to all Americans; do not use prejudice and discrimination as an excuse for
lawlessness, hatred or self-destruction. It is not racist to insist that our immigration laws be
obeyed. Racism is no excuse for black on black crime any more than it is for white on white
crime.
What is needed is not another commission, issuing yet another report. This time, the
President will lead the effort. This time, the panel will recruit local leaders to engage their
communities in this great national dialogue. This time, it will be the responsibility of the
President to report to the nation in about one year's time.
What do we want from all this? If we achieve nothing more than talk, that will be too
little. If we propose nothing but policy ideas that are merely small gestures along the way, that
will be too little. But if 10 years from now, people can look back and see that America's
commitment to our ideals was renewed and reinvigorated and that the post-Martin Luther King
generation finally shouldered its fair burden in this historic struggle, then this effort will have
been a success.
America is the ideal that people all over the world strive for. We have always given hope
to people struggling for peace and democracy. You need only say the word, "America" anyplace
in the world, and the image is instantaneous. It is a portrait of the best of the human spirit. We
have always shown the world how to live together in diversity. If we take action today to heal
our lingering racial and ethnic divisions, I strongly believe we can continue to play this
important role. America's best days lie ahead. We have what it takes to be the greatest multiracial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy the world has ever known — a place where
differences are not merely tolerated, but celebrated.
�Let us remember where America started, how far we have come, and let us never forget
how much farther we must go. Much of the burden -- and all the benefits - will lie with you and
the generations to come. We must look forward to the day when race and ethnicity are not
America's constant obsession - when the color of the skin is no more important than the color of
your hair. We must recommit ourselves to our long national journey to become One America.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless America.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Michael Waldman
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
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Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
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1993-1999
Identifier
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2006-0469-F
Extent
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Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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[University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and Misc. Speeches and Drafts] [2]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 52
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36404"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F Segment 2
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
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Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
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6/3/2015
Source
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7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg2-052-019-2015