Gregory Freeman: Scandal May Deny Report On Racism Attention It Deserves. P-D 9/22/1998

Headline: SCANDAL MAY DENY REPORT ON RACISM ATTENTION IT DESERVES
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Tues., Sept. 22, 1998
Section: METRO, Page: C1, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

Noble cause jeopardized
Amid great fanfare, President Bill Clinton last year pledged to use the weight of the presidency to attack the nation's racial ills.
The president, recognizing trends that indicate that America will become more multiracial than ever in the next century, established an Advisory Board on Race. The board was charged with studying the issue of race and diversity and making a report and recommendations to Clinton. Now that report, along with the White House's effort to confront our nation's racial problems, appears to be one of the first casualties of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

The board issued its 294-page report last week, but little attention was paid to it. Unlike when Clinton first announced the initiative, America's eyes these days are on Congress and what it does to punish Clinton.

That's unfortunate, because Clinton's motives behind the initiative were noble. Perhaps more than any other president, Clinton has recognized the pain, the wasted opportunities, the economic loss caused by our na tion's racial polarization. His position and his background put him in a pivotal place in history where he could have made a significant difference.
Clinton had recognized the trends that promise to change America significantly in the next century, making it perhaps the most multiracial democracy in history. He had hoped to take the steps necessary to help build a successful multiracial society. At the same time, he had recognized that "there's still unfinished business between blacks and whites in America that without resolving we can't ever get to the next stage."

Nowhere is that unfinished business felt more than in St. Louis. Despite all that it's got going for it, St. Louis is a place where the animosity between many blacks and whites is palpable, a place where nasty words about one another are often spewed under the cover of darkness. Ours is a place where people move so they don't have to live with people of other races, a place where parts of our power structure seem to work at times to make sure that opportunities are not equal.
And although much of the tension is between blacks and whites, Latinos, Asians and others feel it as well.

To be honest, the board's report was less than stellar. Hobbled by a seeming uncertainty about its mission, criticism from conservatives and Native Americans that it was ignoring their concerns and a president whose attention was focused on other areas, the board made no sweeping recommendations. The report was considerably less dramatic than what Clinton promised when he took on the issue of race.
   Still, the advisory board recognized some truths and recommended that the president make Americans more aware of whites' racial privileges.
   It pointed to the realities of life for many people of color: the pain of being followed around in a store strictly because of race; the embarrassment of being refused service or being made to wait for everyone else when visiting restaurants or other businesses; the indignity of being sold automobiles at prices higher than they're sold to whites.
   The board also drew attention to organizations engaged in promising "best practices, " including three in St. Louis: Bridges Across Racial Polarization, CommUnity-St. Louis and Leader Support Groups.
   And it recommended that a permanent council on race be established to help reduce the country's racial problems and ease the nation into a new, multiracial era.

The advisory board's recommendations, however, lie in the hands of a president who has been damaged and whose attention these days is on issues other than race. The initiative always depended on Clinton's ability to use his office's moral stature to persuade people.
The real question now is whether, in his current wounded state, the president has any moral stature left, and whether he has the ability to implement any of his advisory board's suggestions.
Unfortunately, thanks to the Lewinsky matter and a congressional inquiry, an initiative that started with a roar appears to have concluded with a whimper.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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