Official brings president's Initiative on Race to CU

William Leftwich, deputy assistant secretary of defense and director of President Clinton's Initiative on Race, leads a student panel discussion Feb. 2 in Statler Auditorium. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

By Linda Myers

"One America Conversation, President Clinton's Initiative on Race" came to Cornell's Statler Auditorium Wednesday evening, Feb. 2, thanks to Hotel School junior Jinhee Michell Lee.

Lee met William Leftwich, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense and director of the president's Initiative on Race, when she served as an interpreter for him in Korea during an internship she did there in 1998-99. She asked Leftwich to moderate a panel of 20 Cornell students to discuss how to make the United States a more racially tolerant society. The event was co-sponsored by the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality and the School of Hotel Administration.

Leftwich, who has conducted similar discussions on 49 other campuses across the country, said: "Racism exists. There's no magic formula to make it go away. By the year 2020, there won't be a majority race in the United States. We need to be able to live and work with one another without mistrust and hatred. By holding eclectic gatherings such as this across the country, we hope to get people to start thinking about what we can do to bring about change."

The students agreed that racial animosity exists on campus but were divided on how to address it. Program houses such as Ujamaa Residential College, which explores the African experience, and Akwe:Kon, which examines the culture of indigenous Americans, were favored by some panel members and criticized by others for furthering social segregation.

Leslie Ackerman, a graduate student in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, praised the tools put forth in Teaching Tolerance, a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center. "I'd love to see this magazine in every school," she said. Marc Rivera, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, suggested substituting the word "racialization" for "race" -- which a professor of his called a social construct and the product of a racially imbalanced power structure.

"We can find a thousand ways to say it, but we have to find real ways to deal with it," Leftwich commented.

Leftwich, who sends monthly reports to the White House on One America Conversation talks, identified the boldest suggestion he has heard so far: an executive order from the president outlawing discrimination. And the suggestion that appealed to him most: Camp David discussions among top business and civic leaders aimed at finding solutions to the challenges of diversity.