[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 173 (Friday, November 3, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16686-S16687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       CAN AMERICA'S RACIAL RIFTS BE HEALED BY A BLACK PRESIDENT?

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, one of the finest journalists in our 
Nation today is David Shribman.
  He writes a column that appears, among other places, in the Chicago 
Tribune.
  He recently had a column that suggests solving the problems of race 
in our country cannot be done dramatically by any one leader or person.
  That does not suggest that a President, Senator, Governor, or leader 
in 

[[Page S 16687]]
any capacity cannot have an impact. But his column reflects on the 
depth of the problem that we have in our country, and I would urge my 
colleagues to read it.
  I ask unanimous consent that the column be printed in the Record.
  The column follows:

       Can America's Racial Rifts Be Healed by a Black President?

                          (By David Shribman)

       Washington.--Yes, there is a national political angle to 
     the O.J. Simpson murder trial. And yes, it's as troubling as 
     the social angle, the criminal-justice angle, the media angle 
     and the commercial angle.
       It's this: Next year's election is going to be conducted in 
     a country that is so racially divided that one side can't 
     comprehend why the other side sees things the way it does. 
     And the irony is that the greatest imponderable in this 
     landscape of confusion is an African-American man.
       Right now, as O.J. Simpson begins a new life, retired Gen. 
     Colin L. Powell contemplates his plans. Both are embarking on 
     uncharted paths. Both will be watched carefully by the 
     public. Both will in no small way shape the country we become 
     in the next century.
       Simpson and Powell, to be sure, have so little in common 
     that it's almost stilted to connect them. One is a star 
     athlete, man about town, a bit of a libertine: fast on his 
     feet, fast in his life. The other is a war hero, a man of 
     probity, a paragon of discipline: slow to judge, slow to 
     rile.
       But the murder trial of the one has opened up racial rifts 
     so wide that the temptation is to say that the steely drive 
     of the other might help the healing.
       American voters know that the risk of hiring President 
     Powell isn't substantially different from the risk of hiring 
     President Dole or the risk of rehiring President Clinton. But 
     there is something about the Powell boomlet that carries 
     echoes from the tortured and tortuous American life of 
     Orenthal James Simpson. And those echoes are warning signals:
       Colin Powell can't fix everything.
       But that's not what you're hearing from the commentators, 
     handicappers, analysts, instant experts and grandstand big 
     mouths who proclaim their opinions on national politics much 
     the way they proclaim their opinions on, say, the National 
     Football League.
       Many of them suggest that a Powell campaign could be the 
     George Washington Bridge of modern American politics, a 
     wonder of political architecture spanning wide distances--
     between Republicans and Democrats, between liberals and 
     conservatives, above all between blacks and whites. It's an 
     appealing, even an intoxicating, notion: Bring centuries of 
     racism, violence, suspicion and repression to an abrupt end 
     by electing a black president.
       But listen, too, to the undertow of the American 
     conversation. This is what many whites say about Colin 
     Powell: He doesn't seem black. He moves so easily between the 
     races. His accomplishments are so vivid that they are without 
     color content.
       That's what some blacks say, somewhat warily, about Powell 
     as well: Not really black. Moves between the races. Without 
     color content.
       And that, of course, is what everyone said about O.J. 
     Simpson. He was black but not too black. He was everybody's 
     favorite golf partner. He was the most fabulously appealing 
     black corporate spokesman of his time. When O.J. ran--and I 
     saw this myself two decades ago, at Buffalo Bills training 
     camps in Niagara Falls and again in Rich Stadium in Orchard 
     Park, N.Y.--the whites cheered as lustily as the blacks.
       Everybody said that Simpson transcended race. He didn't. 
     Everybody says that Powell transcends race. He doesn't.
       The wounds of America's centuries-long signature struggle 
     are too deep to be bandaged by one man. Winning the respect 
     of George Bush, who is privately urging Powell to run, isn't 
     enough to end tensions that have been festering since the 
     early days of colonial Virginia. It's a start, but it isn't a 
     finish.
       Now that the trial of O.J. Simpson is over, the nation's 
     newspapers and television networks can start chronicling 
     another American drama: the 1996 presidential campaign. The 
     first subplot is Powell's decision, expected next month, 
     about whether to run for president.
       One thing, however, is sure: A Powell candidacy can't 
     become a feel-good experience--or an excuse for not talking 
     about race.
       Everyone now knows--press your TV remote and you'll see it 
     reinforced on O.J. retrospectives, talk shows, town meetings 
     and news broadcasts--that racial misunderstanding and 
     mistrust can't be overestimated in this country.
       And so the Simpson trial isn't irrelevant to the campaign. 
     It tells us that race is more than skin deep, and so is 
     racism. It tells us that the leader who takes America into 
     the 21st Century will have to understand these gaps, not 
     paper them over. It tells us the president will have to say 
     something about things that, for many years, were better left 
     unsaid--about racism, injustice, fear. It tells us that, 
     after all these years, we still must summon what Lincoln 
     called the ``better angels of our nature.''

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