On the recordJuly 8, 1998
Well, I basically agree with you about that. As a Southerner, like Dr. Franklin, I think that there are unique and still- unresolved issues between black and white Americans, and there are some conditions in America which disproportionately involve African- Americans. Some of them are not old. Today there was just this Journal of American Medical Association story saying that African-Americans metabolize nicotine in a different way than other races, as far as we know, and therefore, even though blacks smoke fewer cigarettes, they're more likely to get lung cancer--interesting thing. But to get back to your main point, I have tried to emphasize that America is becoming a multiracial, multiethnic, multireligious society, and therefore it would be more important both to understand the differences and to identify the common values that hold us together as a country. And I often cite, since we're in northern Virginia where this program is being filmed, I often cite the Fairfax County School District, which is now the most diverse school district in the country, with people from over 100 different racial and ethnic groups with over 100 different languages, actually, in this school district. And I think that's a pattern of where we're going. I've got a friend who is a Southern Baptist minister here; he used to be a minister in Arkansas. He's got a Korean ministry in his church. That's just one tiny example of the kind of things you're going to see more and more of in the country. Mr. Lehrer. Cynthia, is the unfinished business still black and white? [Ms. Tucker suggested that what many considered racial differences were actually class differences, that disproportionately poor blacks resented whites, and that working-class whites with stagnant or declining incomes blamed blacks and immigrants. She voiced the opinion that the wealth gap was, in part, responsible for the continuing racial problems.]
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