On the day of the Million Man March in Washington, President Clinton was in Texas. But he still delivered a rousing speech on racism, imploring blacks and whites to stop the hatred that “is tearing the heart of America.” He urged them to “roll back the divide” and talk to one another honestly about race. “I am convinced, based on a rich lifetime of friendships and common endeavors with people of different races,” said Clinton, “that the American people will find out they have a lot more common ground than they think they do.”
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Robert Novak: We are two countries, divided not between rich and poor (as Mario Cuomo has said) but between black and white.
Ellen Goodman: Close your eyes and close your ears and it just seeps in through your pores.
Carl Rowan: It is as though the decision makers in our media have a vested interest in fostering hatred, reserving platforms only for the biggest fools among blacks, and then wailing editorially about the “terrible racial divide.”
Rowan: We will survive this spasm of stupidity, emerging with many-hued hands clasped as a symbol of knowledge of our common destiny.
Byrne: Would that all white men had the guts of the black men gathering in Washington to stand up for their manhood.
