Archive for October 28th, 2005

At 6:15 I lined up outside the New York Public Library on 42nd St and 5th Ave, and after a 45 minute wait, and a very minimal security check (the girl behind me got in with a gym ID card), I was let into the Celeste Bartos Forum to see Bill Clinton and Dr. John Hope Franklin discuss current race relations in our country.

In 1997 Clinton launched The Presidents Initiative on Race, which basically breaks down to a national effort to deal openly and honestly with our racial differences. The head of his advisory board was Franklin, a History professor and distinguished author. Franklin has just written a book titled Mirror to America, and tonight’s discussion is to help promote it.

A dixieland band was playing as tuxedod waiters handed out complimentary champagne. Under a lighted archway a small platform stage was set up with two chairs waiting for the evening’s guests. People of all ages, from 7 to 70 were scrambling to find seats, wandering into the VIP and Press sections which were cordoned off by velvet ropes. As is my luck, I ended up with a chair in the last row on the side, next to the (marble) wall. Although this was a talk about race relations, the audience was predominantly white, and seemed to be upper class, based on the conversations I overheard. I felt like I was at a fund raising political rally more than an academic lecture.

After another 45 minutes, the band broke out into the old Louis Armstrong song, Black and Blue, “My only sin is in my skin,” to set the tone for the evening.

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