<i> A look at noteworthy addresses in the Southland.</i> : <i> Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), spoke at Town Hall on Monday on “Racism and the Future of Urban America</i> .<i> “ From Bradley’s prepared text: </i> : Straight Talk
“Slavery was our original sin, just as race remains America’s unresolved dilemma. The future of American cities is inextricably bound to the issue of race and ethnicity. By the year 2000, only 57% of the people entering our work force will be native-born whites. That means that the economic future of the children of white Americans will increasingly depend on the talents of nonwhite Americans. If they fail because of our penny-pinching or timidity about straight talk, America will become a second-rate power. If they succeed, America and all Americans will be enriched.
“Even though our American future depends on finding common ground, many white Americans resist relinquishing the sense of entitlement skin color has given them throughout our national history. They lack an understanding of the emerging dynamics of ‘one world,’ even in the United States, because to them nonwhites always have been ‘the other.’ Black Americans ask of Asian-Americans, ‘What’s the problem? You’re doing well economically.’ Black Americans believe that Latinos often fail to find common ground with their historic struggle. And some Latino-Americans agree, questioning whether the model of the black civil rights movement is the only path to progress. White Americans continue to harbor absurd stereotypes of all people of color. Black Americans take white criticism of individual acts as an attempt to stigmatize all black Americans. We seem more interested in defending our racial territory than admitting that maybe we could see things differently.
“In politics for the last 25 years, silence or distortion has shaped the issue of race and urban America. Both political parties have contributed to the problem. Republicans have played the race card in a divisive way to get votes--remember Willie Horton--and Democrats have suffocated discussion of self-destructive behavior among the minority population in a cloak of silence and denial. The result is that yet another generation has been lost. We cannot afford to wait longer. It is time for candor, time for truth, time for action.”
What Needs to Be Done “The first concrete step is to bring an end to violence, intervene early in a child’s life, reduce child abuse, establish some rules, remain unintimidated and involve the community in its own salvation.
“As a young man in dreadlocks said at one of my recent town meetings: ‘What we need is for people to care enough about themselves, so that they won’t hurt anyone else.’ That is the essence of community policing--getting a community to respect itself enough to cooperate and support the police so that, together, security is assured. . . . In addition, we need gun control, Draconian punishment for drug kingpins, mandatory sentences for crimes committed with guns, and reinvestment of some defense budget savings into city police departments, schools and hospitals.
“The second step is to bolster families in urban America. That effort begins with the recognition that the most important year in a child’s life is the first. Fifteen-month houses must be established for women seven months pregnant who want to live the first year of their life as a mother in a residential setting. Young fathers would be encouraged to participate too. Fifteen-month houses would reduce parental neglect or violence by teaching teen-age mothers how to parent. . . . They need to be combined with full funding for . . . Head Start, more generous tax treatment of children, one-year parental leave, tough child support enforcement, and welfare reform that encourages marriage, work and assumption of responsibility instead of having more children you can’t afford.
“The third step is to create jobs for those who can work--jobs that will last in an economy that is growing.”
Looking Ahead* Friday: Maureen DiMarco, California secretary of child development and education, will address Town Hall at 12:40 p.m. Call (213) 628-8141.
* Monday: Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross and former U.S. secretary of labor, will speak at Whittier College at 7 p.m. Call (310) 945-3944.
* Tuesday: John Huxtable Elliott, Oxford University historian and expert on early modern Spanish history, will discuss Christopher Columbus and “The Significance of 1492 in 1992” at 11 a.m. at Pomona College. Call (714) 621-8146.