THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511040283
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Charlise Lyles
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
The other evening, I had soda pop and cookies with President Clinton.
The cookies were Pepperidge Farm chocolate and vanilla, which is sort of what brought us 12 African-American columnists to the White House.
Race relations was at the core of the Trotter Group's 80-minute discussion, which touched on race matters such as the Million Man March.
``I believe that when something like that happens, and there's something real deep coming through the society and it's good and it's wholesome and being manifest like that, the job of leaders is to give voice to it. And not to get in the way of it,'' the president said.
``I would like to think about how the power of the presidency can be used to generate the kind of energy and affirmative impression that was created at the march all across America.''
Now, you know, I don't go easy on white guys from Arkansas. But as he munched cookies in the stately Cabinet Room, the president spoke on race with a bold candor uncommon for an incumbent. Especially for one about to hit the campaign trail.
I suspected that the possibility of a challenge from Gen. Colin Powell, and an unprecedented battle for black votes in 1996 had something to do with that candor.
Nonetheless, the president impressed me as capable of taking the nation to the next level of overcoming.
The first wave in '50s and '60s dealt with major civil rights legislation and court battles. This wave deals with the racist psyche that many are oblivious to until there is an O.J. verdict or Million Man March.
``I never thought it was basically about Mr. Farrakhan,'' Clinton said. ``I just never did. I never thought it was basically about white folks.
``I think the thing we need to do is to try to take advantage of the permission that the Million Man March gave to white Americans to say these black folks share my values. . . .
``There needs to be a personal response and a policy response'' to the march, Clinton said. ``. . . I've got some ideas.''
They were a wee bit sketchy.
One thing he doesn't want is yet another Kerner-type commission to study the problems of blacks. Members of Congress - Republican and Democrat, black and white - suggested that after the march.
``The last thing I want to do is study a problem that we already know about, and to give any of us, including the president, an excuse for inaction,'' he said.
An organized national dialogue is a possibility, he ventured, saying that would be a meaningful goal for a commission.
The idea reminded me of the National Endowment for the Humanities call several years ago for a dialogue on values and diversity. In the wake of the Los Angeles riot, the NEH proposed town hall meetings across the land. But media and politicos alike scorned it.
Perhaps, now is the time.
Dialogue, Clinton said crunching a cookie, is the one way to move beyond the bone-deep, but subtle racism that suffocates.
But the president stopped short of a promise. ``I don't want to raise a lot of false hopes.''
Whatever specific action Clinton takes or doesn't take on race matters will probably have a lot to do with Powell's decision to run.
But Clinton vows to continue talking to whites about racism and even responded to a suggestion that he seek a symbolic place from which to do so.
``I've said some pretty tough things to white Americans'' about black America's reality, Clinton said, dusting off the last of the cookies.
By this time, the cookie idea had caught on with me.
Remember how President Roosevelt sat the American public down by the radio for those weekly ``fire-side chats?''
Well, suppose that once a week, we all sit down with the president, via television, at school gymnasiums, work auditoriums, libraries and elsewhere for a national milk and cookie hour to deal real seriously with our diversity.
And little by little, munch away at our great divide.
KEYWORDS: RACE RELATIONS by CNB