Harvard University and special advisor to President Bill
Clinton on Clinton's race initiative in America, has noted that
most black families are but two paychecks away from pov-
erty.

Infant mortality for black childbirths in the 1990s is still
more than two times that for white childbirths (17 deaths per
1,000 births for blacks compared to 8 deaths per 1,000 births
for whites). Six out of ten black children live in households
headed by their mothers, compared to one out of six for whites.
Life expectancy for blacks is 70 years, compared to 77 for
whites. One out of three black males between the ages of 18
and 25 is in some part of the criminal justice system--in jail,
on probation, or on parole. The leading cause of death for
black males in the same age category is homicide, and, over-
all, blacks are nearly seven times more likely to be the victim
of homicide than whites. The daily realities of life in black
communities all across the United States have given rise to
what Cornel West argues is a growing sense of nihilism--the
belief that traditional values and principles are unfounded and
that existence is senseless and useless. This belief in part ex-
plains youth violence in inner cities; despair and disillu-
sionment overshadow the lives of many black Americans in
the closing years of the twentieth century.

On yet another level, we must question where race rela-
tions stand in the United States in the late 1990s. To be sure,
the days of legal segregation are a thing of the past. But if the
United States is not segregated by law, isn't it nonetheless
possible that Americans are segregated by heart? Is the ideal
of integration, so prominent in the vision of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders during the 1960s, also
a thing of the past? In 1997, President Bill Clinton best summed
up this sentiment on the fortieth anniversary of the desegrega-
tion of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, when
he said the following:

Today children of every race walk through the same door, but
then they often walk down different halls. Not only in this
school, but across America, they sit in different classrooms,
they eat at different tables. They even sit in different parts of
the bleachers at the football game. Far too many communi-
ties are all white, all black, all Latino, all Asian. . . . Segregation
is no longer the law, but too often it is the rule.

The view one thus gets of race relations in the United
States and the place of African Americans within the current
political framework is opaque at best. Progress has occurred;
but if there was progress over the course of the twentieth cen-
tury, it was uneven, occurring in fits and starts, in the political
climate at the end of the 1990s--where race-based affirma-
tive action policies in employment and education were rolled
back or done away with altogether, where congressional dis-
tricts drawn to increase minority representation in our national
government were later declared unconstitutional by the Su-
preme Court, and where black unemployment remained at
twice the national average in a period of unprecedented eco-
nomic expansion--it should behoove Americans to rededi-
cate and commit themselves to the meaning of equality in all
its various shades. Equality of opportunity is an honorable
goal, but lucidity demands that we also pay keen attention to
outcomes, consequences, and results. For neither equal op-
portunity nor democracy mean anything if we remain two
nations, black and white, separate, hostile, and, for the most
part, unequal.

At the start of the twentieth century, Du Bois's question
of 1903--"How does it feel to be a problem?"--has perhaps
been superseded by Rodney King's question of 1992--"Please,
can't we all just get along?" At the least, these two questions
frame the twentieth century--they are its bookends. All Ameri-
cans must share collectively how "getting along" might best
be attained if we are to prevent the problem of the color-line
from persisting and tearing asunder the fabric of the country.

This Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics,
while not necessarily providing answers to these questions,
seeks at least to bring about a lucidity of the mind and a clear-
ness of thought, such that the questions broached here can be
addressed in a reasonable manner. Before we know where to
proceed in American politics, we need to know what stands
immediately before us, we need a comprehensive look at the
current state of American politics and the place of African
Americans within it. This topic is not without interest to any
reader who, as Du Bois put it, is "seeking the grain of truth
hidden here."

What follows is an overview of the place of African
Americans within American political life on several levels.
First, we look at the place of race and racism in American
political culture. Next, we turn to a brief historical survey of
the way race has affected American political development and
the struggle African Americans have undergone for inclusion
in the system. Finally, we close with thoughts on the ideal of
"color blindness" in a society that is, for all intents and pur-
poses, overly color-conscious.

Since its inception, the United States has been characterized
by most political theorists as the quintessential "liberal" soci-
ety. Although not a unified body of thought, liberalism can
be defined as a set of social and political beliefs, values, and
attitudes that assumes the universal and equal application of
the law and the existence of basic human rights superior to
those of state and community. Any liberal society therefore
embodies a specific set of principles or values, albeit in vary-
ing levels: liberty, equality, democracy, individualism, and
constitutionalism or rule of law. However, this characteriza-
tion immediately raises a red flag when we consider the plight
of African Americans and the sordid history of slavery and
subsequent discrimination in the United States. The ques-
tion is simply this: How can there be a history of slavery,
discrimination, and persistent racism in a society that calls
itself "liberal" and that embodies all the principles just listed?
Is it possible to reconcile the tenets of a liberal society with
the dogged tenacity of racism in the United States, both of
which were already present at the nation's origin?

The question of racism in American society at this level
is a problem of American political culture--that set of beliefs
and values to which the larger society aspires, if not whole-
heartedly subscribes. When race and racism in the United

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