Color, class, identity

Three recent and dramatic national events have shattered the complacency of many people about progress, however fitful, in race relations in America. The Clarence Thomas - Anita Hill hearings, the O. J. Simpson trial, and the Million Man March of Louis Farrakhan have forced reconsideration of assumptions about race and racial relations. The Thomas-Hill hearings exposed the complexity and volatility of perceptions about race and gender. The sight of jubilant blacks and despondent whites reacting to the O. J. Simpson verdict shook our confidence in shared assumptions about equal protection under the law. The image of hundreds of thousands of black men gathering in Washington in defense of their racial and cultural identity angered millions of whites and exposed divisions within the black community. These events were unfolding at a time when there seemed to be considerable progress in fighting racial discrimination. On the legal side, discrimination has been eliminated in more and more arenas, in theory if not always in practice. Economically, more and more blacks have moved into the middle class, albeit while larger numbers have slipped further back into poverty. Intellectually, figu