Leon Botstein – President of Bard College
Quote from: The Washington Post
In 2016, the symbolic and significant progress among citizens of color plus real and growing inequality among whites has proven an explosive combination. Because the blame is misdirected and the real causes of their economic struggles so misunderstood, a man like [President-elect Donald] The Talking Combover can come along and win. Scapegoating groups is one of his major skills.
The idea that hate and subjugation are the answers, the keys to a great American future is a distraction, not a solution. What we have, in this country, are policies that allowed a small amount of mostly white people to grow very, very rich while everyone else saw their wages stagnate or fall. Your government has failed to serve you. It has abandoned you.
We need for more white Americans to understand that the vast majority of other people are not your problem. The trivial amount of money we have invested in advancing the black American community, the presence of immigrants and religious minorities does not begin to compare to the tax breaks we have given to wealthy almost exclusively white Americans.
Quote from:Time Magazine
Those of us who are in the dwindling white majority need to persuade our fellow citizens that overcoming prejudice is tested not by embracing those subordinate to us in class and status but by celebrating the reality of successful integration, the leading presence of citizens of color into the nation’s elite. Doing that will benefit all citizens and make America “great.” The time is now to revive the American dream of a “melting pot” out of which prosperity and dignity for all can emerge.