| For Immediate Release
June 19, 2002 |
Contacts: |
Janet Dewart Bell |
| Heather Bent Tamir 212/629-9570 ext 205
|
New York, N.Y. - In their first New York appearance to discuss the findings and analyses of Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground: New Dimensions on Race in America (W.W. Norton, 2002), Angela Glover Blackwell and Stewart Kwoh , co-authors with Manuel Pastor , presented diverse and insightful perspectives on race, while challenging the audience and America to "avoid the least common denominator" and reach for the "uncommon common ground" of racial understanding and cooperation. The New York event is part of a national series of conversations in which the authors-of African American, Asian American, and Cuban American backgrounds-explore the often divisive issue of race from sociological, economic, and political perspectives, using their personal stories-and their personal friendships-as a lens to understanding that the road to racial understanding and justice means that we must deal with the tough issues in civil, but honest, conversation.
Sponsored by The American Assembly, W.W. Norton, and PolicyLink, in association with the YWCA of the City of New York, the June 11 panel discussion sparked a lively discussion among the audience of almost 200 guests, representing a cross section of policy experts, advocates, activists, foundation executives, and heads of social welfare agencies. The event occurred in the Hitchcock/Rockefeller Auditorium of the YWCA of the City of New York at 610 Lexington Avenue at 53 rd Street. Phillip Martin , former race relations correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR), moderated.
In his welcoming remarks, Daniel A. Sharp , President and CEO of The American Assembly, stated: "I believe that the value of the book is that it brings the reader up to date on key traditional issues, such as economic inequality, but it goes much further by pointing the way to.issues such as environmental justice, sprawl, technology differentials, and the critical nature of leadership development in the 21 st century.. Perhaps more important, the authors offer a constructive vision for action."
Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground says that the American people must venture beyond their comfort zones and strive to ensure that "opportunities are opened to all the nation's people." The book identifies and presents solutions to continuing causes of inequity. It is a single narrative, a unique collaboration of three distinct and distinguished voices.
Harvard professor and noted sociologist William Julius Wilson has written that: " Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground provides the basis for an important national dialogue on issues of race. The book is replete with revealing facts and new insights on both substantive and public policy issues. I highly recommend this study for anyone looking for a fresh and thoughtful framework for the pursuit of racial equality in America."
To give context to their work, each author recounted a personal story before engaging in an exchange of opinions with each other and with the audience.
Angela Blackwell talked about her middle-class childhood in segregated St. Louis, Missouri, where she was shielded from the harsh effects of racism.
"My personal experience there as a child, however, was almost completely devoid of any awareness of racism. For I had the benefit of a web of caring adults who must have spent twenty-four hours a day figuring out ways to protect their children from racism. Part of their job was made easy by the complete separation of the races. The schools, churches, social events, service organizations, and neighborhoods where we played and volunteered were all black. But separation from whites did not satisfy these adults; their aim was higher. They wanted their children to have exposure to the best that St. Louis had to offer without coming into contact with those who would seek to diminish us. What's amazing is that they succeeded."
Her later experiences at college helped her understand that the well-educated, proud black adults who had formed the core of her experiences had kept hidden their frustrations at having their lives circumscribed by segregation. She states: "After college, I became an organizer, a public interest lawyer, a community builder, a foundation executive, and a policy advocate. I've had many jobs, but only one project-to do something about racism, injustice, and inequality; to help build a society in which all people can thrive, contribute, and participate fully.In searching for solutions, I never forget that community matters."
Stewart Kwoh recounted: "I was once asked by a white waitress who was taking my restaurant order where my family was from. I answered that on my mother's side of the family, my great-grandfather was a miner in New Mexico, my grandfather was a tailor in Oakland and Stockton, California, and that my mother was born in Stockton. The waitress interrupted me without hesitation and asked, 'And how do you like your new country?' Although both of my sons were born in Los Angeles, I am willing to bet that they will be asked the same question during their lifetimes. Although the stereotype of the 'model minority' has most recently been applied to Asian American and Pacific Islanders (APIs), the most enduring image of APIs is that of the foreigner..
".My own evolution into a civil rights advocate actually did not begin with the concern over Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. It came as a result of growing up in Los Angeles..I was certainly influenced by my parents, who are dedicated Christians and givers to the community. In the early 1960s, I also vividly recall the debates in my Presbyterian church. Our minister went to march in the civil rights demonstrations in the Deep South and came back to a partially hostile congregation in Los Angeles. They eye-opening experience led to my participation in the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ), now the National Conference for Communities and Justice..In my work on civil rights cases dealing with Asian Americans, African Americans, and Latinos, it is always the valiant struggles of individuals and communities that continue to inspire me."
Manuel Pastor (by way of videotape) stated: "Like many sons of immigrants, my story began long before my birth. My dad came to the United States in the 1930s, a young man fleeing economic despair in Cuba. His documentation was, shall we say, imperfect. But World War II came and the fervor to fill the ranks of the army eventually presented him with a stark choice: be returned to the island or go fight in Europe. He asked my cousin Carlitos to flip a coin to decide. That coin traveled with him to the war; both returned safely.
"My mom was born in Tampa, Florida, where her mother, an immigrant cigar-roller in a sweaty factory, had been swept off her feet by my grandfather, Joaquin, a sometime singer and sometime janitor. They headed north for economic opportunity, and my mother grew up in Spanish Harlem.but they were hard-working, earnest, and curious about the way the world worked-and a generation later, their son became a professor in the premier public university system in the country. It is an immigrant story, the sort Americans often celebrate by pointing to individual initiative and drive. But it is not just our story. I grew up in a racially mixed neighborhood in Southern California, our home purchase made possible by federally sponsored loans for veterans..In my success, I stand not alone, but in the shadow of my parents' history and in debt to the social policies that helped all of our hard work pay off-and I have always felt an obligation to keep those opportunities alive."
Also participating in the event were Patricia Geoghegan , Board Chair, YWCA of the City of New York, and Judith Bell , Executive Vice President, PolicyLink.
Angela Glover Blackwell is the founder and president of PolicyLink, a national nonprofit research, communications, capacity building, and advocacy organization headquartered in Oakland, California. Stewart Kwoh is the president and executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California, and recipient of a MacArthur fellowship. Manuel Pastor is professor of Latin American and Latino Studies and director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground is the fourth book in the Uniting America series of The American Assembly, a nonpartisan organization established by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1950 to illuminate issues of vital public interest. Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground is available in bookstores and from online booksellers.