On slavery’s impact today: It’s both a historical fact and a very powerful force that casts a shadow over the present. When you talk about the role of slavery, ask why do people look at me and think that I’m their servant? What the hell is that all about? If they haven’t somehow come to the conclusion that I’m here to serve them the way my ancestors 150 years ago were there to serve theirs. Imagine asking an 82-year-old man to fetch anything for them? Or to serve them, to get their coat or their car or to call me ““boy.’’ That’s the shadow that’s over this whole thing.
On history and the conversation about race: I don’t think a conversation on race can take place without a discussion of the development and perfection of the doctrine of racial superiority that was more carefully and more successfully projected after slavery than during slavery. It was after slavery that you get some of the most barbaric, uncivilized manifestations of hate and of the sense of white superiority. I think in part [that happened] because whites are poor losers. This country has never confronted its own Holocaust, its own violence.
On eliminating slave owners’ names from public schools: I don’t think we should try to rewrite history. George Washington was what he was, and I think the students ought to know that he led the armies through the Revolution; that, at long last, he brought African-Americans into the patriot army; that he was president of the Constitutional Convention. And that he was a large slaveholder.
On apologizing for slavery: If I were president I don’t think I would. What does it do? I don’t think it will advance the cause of equality. You can tell me you’re sorry, but it won’t make me feel any better, it won’t get me a better situation in life, a better job, an extra month in school.
On affirmative action: I would favor affirmative action over this empty gesture of an apology. I’m talking about opportunities, which African-Americans or Latinos don’t have, or some Asian-Americans don’t have. I’m in favor of affirmative action, but I’m not in favor of affirmative action that we’ve had for 300 years; namely affirmative action for whites. When I was getting ready to go to graduate school, every white person in the state of Oklahoma could go to the University of Oklahoma that my daddy was paying taxes for. I had to send to Oklahoma my grades from Harvard so they would send me my $100 towards tuition. No white person in Oklahoma had to do that. When they tried to set up [a] system that would create for blacks the type of opportunities that had existed for whites for 200 years, they said, ““Oh, this is terrible; this is awful, un-American, unconstitutional, illegal.''
On hopes for better race relations: If you had asked me a year ago I’m not sure I would’ve been optimistic. But from where I sit now I am. I am overwhelmed by the expressions of enthusiastic support for what we are trying to do.
