Diversity
(Vera Speaking)

 
 

MAIN PATH: Malik
 
 
 
Vera
Malik
 

We know those things are true, Malik. What you're saying is that there is still discrimination against black people that operates in many different ways. I agree.

But the nature of discrimination has changed. Fifty years ago in many states blacks weren't allowed to vote or to sit on juries. In some cases they were barred by law from working in the same room with whites. Only a very few were allowed into the best colleges. That kind of discrimination placed them in a fundamentally different position in relation to both government and economy. A very different viewpoint might arise from that. But the discrimination that affects all blacks today is nowhere near so fundamental. It still exists, but I think that income and class matter more.

But there is a simpler way to settle this. Forget about how much or how little discrimination has changed. Forget about whether race or class is more important for determining our chances of becoming this or that.

The fact is that if we look at black intellectuals and political leaders we find a great variety of viewpoints. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X do not have the same view of the world. Derrick Bell tends to stress the importance of race. Thomas Sowell believes in the free market. William Julius Wilson considers himself a social democrat. Manning Marable is a socialist. In 1992 the Libertarian party almost ran a black man for president. Angela Davis has run on the Communist Party ticket. Given all that, how can you say there is a black point of view?
Reference: One well known discussion of the importance of race and class to black Americans is The Declining Significance of Race by William Julius Wilson.
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