Bill Clinton: “Okay. Let me just say this, first of all. I think, if you imagine--forget about--think about what the world would look…”

“Okay. Let me just say this, first of all. I think, if you imagine--forget about--think about what the world would look like 30 years from now if things go well, that is, if all the threats to our collective security--[inaudible]--restrained and trade develops as we hope it should, and we develop a decent education system that embraces virtually everybody that will work for it. The fact that the United States is becoming--[inaudible]--multiethnic country that at some point in the next generation, in the next 50 years will, for the first time in its history, not have a majority of people of European origin, I think will make it an even more fascinating, even more interesting, and even more prosperous and successful place if we're not consumed or limited or handicapped in some ways because of our racial differences. So, to me, this is--I'm looking at this through the perspective of the future that I want to see our country make for itself. And I don't think anyone has all the answers about how we should make that future. If you look at--there is no question that--if you just take African- Americans, for example, the middle class is growing and a lot of good things have happened. But there is also no question that there are still pockets where crime is greater, incarceration rates are horrendous, that education systems are not working. And even the people who do have some level of it, who are highly industrious, and are dying to get into business very often don't have access to credit and don't have access to the networks. Affirmative action originally, I think, on the economic side was a kind of networking thing, and on the education side it was designed to do what you --the Maryland program you just described. I think if there was ever a shortcoming in college education--we ought to be focusing on people who are educationally disadvantaged without-- [inaudible]--they didn't get the preparation and continuing support that they needed. The schools that have done that are much better. [Stephan A. Thernstrom, Harvard University Winthrop professor of history and coauthor of ``America in Black and White: One Nation Indivisible'' with his wife, Abigail, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, took issue with two points made by Mr. Connerly. First, he stated that people now know each other better across racial lines than they did a generation ago and offered some examples. Second, he said he found the Akron meeting troubling and one-sided and gave examples of the lack of dialog. He commented that while most of the discussion was addressed to white racism, recent studies showed that among African-Americans, Asian- Americans, and Hispanic-Americans, each group had stronger negative stereotypes about the other two groups than whites did and that as these populations grew, the problems would become worse, concluding that the issue was not simply one of white racism.]”