[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]

From the 1997 Presidential Documents Online via GPO Access [frwais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:pd23jn97-6]

[Page 876-882]

Monday, June 23, 1997

Volume 33--Number 25

Pages 871-915

Week Ending Friday, June 20, 1997

Remarks at the University of California San Diego Commencement Ceremony

in La Jolla, California

June 14, 1997

Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the

first thing I would like to say is that Coleen spoke so well, and she

said everything I meant to say--[laughter]--that I could do us all a

great favor by simply associating myself with her remarks and sitting

down.

I would also like to thank Dr. Anagnostopoulos for reminding us of

the infamous capacity of faculty members to be contrary with one

another. [Laughter] Until he said it, I hadn't realized that probably 90

percent of the Congress once were on university faculties. [Laughter]

Let me say to Chancellor Dynes and President Atkinson, to the

distinguished regents and faculty members, to the students and their

families and friends who are here today, I'm honored to be joined by a

number of people who reflect the kind of America that Coleen Sabatini

called for: Senator Barbara Boxer and Senator Dan Akaka from Hawaii;

your Congressman, Bob Filner; Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the chair of

the Congressional Black Caucus; Congresswoman Patsy Mink; Congressman

Jim Clyburn; Congressman John Lewis, a great hero of the civil rights

movement; Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald; Congressman Carlos

Romero-Barcelo from Puerto Rico; your Lieutenant Governor, Gray Davis;

the Secretary of Transportation, Rodney Slater; of Labor, Alexis Herman;

of Veterans Affairs, Jesse Brown; of Education, Dick Riley; our

distinguished Ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson; our

distinguished Administrator of the Small Business Administration, Aida

Alvarez, the first American of Puerto Rican descent ever to be in a

Presidential Cabinet. I would like to ask them all to stand, along with

the members of the White House staff who are here, including Thurgood

Marshall, Jr., whose father has a college named for him at this great

university. Would you please stand?

And I can't help but noting that there's another person here that

deserves some special recognition--University of California at San Diego

class of 1977--a Filipino-American woman who became the youngest captain

of the Navy and my personal physician, Dr. Connie Mariano. Where is she?

I want to thank you for offering our Nation a shining example of

excellence rooted in the many backgrounds that make up this great land.

You have blazed new paths in science and technology, explored the new

horizons of the Pacific Rim and Latin America. This is a great

university for the 21st century.

Today we celebrate your achievements at a truly golden moment for

America. The cold war is over and freedom has now ascended around the

globe, with more than half of the

[[Page 877]]

people in this

old world living under governments of their own choosing for the very first

time. Our economy is the healthiest in a generation and the strongest in

the world. Our culture, our science, our technology promise unimagined

advances and exciting new careers. Our social problems, from crime to

poverty, are finally bending to our efforts.

Of course, there are still challenges for you out there. Beyond our

borders, we must battle terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking,

the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the prospect of new diseases

and environmental disaster. Here at home, we must ensure that every

child has the chance you have had to develop your God-given capacities.

We cannot wait for them to get in trouble to notice them. We must

continue to fight the scourge of gangs and crime and drugs. We must

prepare for the retirement of the baby boom generation so that we can

reduce that child poverty rate that Coleen talked about. We must harness

the forces of science and technology for the public good, the entire

American public.

But I believe the greatest challenge we face, among all those that

Coleen talked about, is also our greatest opportunity. Of all the

questions of discrimination and prejudice that still exist in our

society, the most perplexing one is the oldest, and in some ways today,

the newest: the problem of race. Can we fulfill the promise of America

by embracing all our citizens of all races, not just at a university

where people have the benefit of enlightened teachers and the time to

think and grow and get to know each other within the daily life of every

American community? In short, can we become one America in the 21st

century?

I know, and I've said before, that money cannot buy this goal, power

cannot compel it, technology cannot create it. This is something that

can come only from the human spirit--the spirit we saw when the choir of

many races sang as a gospel choir.

Today, the State of Hawaii, which has a Senator and a Congresswoman

present here, has no majority racial or ethnic group. It is a wonderful

place of exuberance and friendship and patriotism. Within the next 3

years, here in California no single race or ethnic group will make up a

majority of the State's population. Already, 5 of our largest school

districts draw students from over 100 different racial and ethnic

groups. At this campus, 12 Nobel Prize winners have taught or studied

from 9 different countries. A half-century from now, when your own

grandchildren are in college, there will be no majority race in America.

Now, we know what we will look like, but what will we be like? Can

we be one America respecting, even celebrating, our differences, but

embracing even more what we have in common? Can we define what it means

to be an American, not just in terms of the hyphen showing our ethnic

origins but in terms of our primary allegiance to the values America

stands for and values we really live by? Our hearts long to answer yes,

but our history reminds us that it will be hard. The ideals that bind us

together are as old as our Nation, but so are the forces that pull us

apart. Our Founders sought to form a more perfect Union. The humility

and hope of that phrase is the story of America, and it is our mission

today.

Consider this: We were born with a Declaration of Independence which

asserted that we were all created equal and a Constitution that

enshrined slavery. We fought a bloody Civil War to abolish slavery and

preserve the Union, but we remained a house divided and unequal by law

for another century. We advanced across the continent in the name of

freedom, yet in so doing we pushed Native Americans off their land,

often crushing their culture and

their livelihood. Our Statue of Liberty welcomes poor, tired, huddled

masses of immigrants to our borders, but each new wave has felt the sting

of discrimination. In World War II, Japanese-Americans fought valiantly for

freedom in Europe, taking great casualties, while at home their families

were herded into internment camps. The famed Tuskegee Airmen lost none of

the bombers they guarded during the war, but their African-American

heritage cost them a lot of rights when they came back home in peace.

Though minorities have more opportunities than ever today, we still

see evidence of bigotry, from the desecration of houses of worship,

whether they be churches, synagogues, or mosques, to demeaning talk in

[[Page 878]]

corporate suites. There is still much work to be done by you, members of

the class of 1997. But those who say we cannot transform the problem of

prejudice into the promise of unity forget how far we have come, and I

cannot believe they have ever seen a crowd like you.

When I look at you, it is almost impossible for me even to remember

my own life. I grew up in the high drama of the cold war, in the

patriotic South. Black and white southerners alike wore our Nation's

uniform in defense of freedom against communism. They fought and died

together, from Korea to Vietnam. But back home, I went to segregated

schools, swam in segregated public pools, sat in all-white sections at

the movies, and traveled through small towns in my State that still

marked restrooms and water fountains ``white'' and ``colored.''

By the grace of God, I had a grandfather with just a grade school

education but the heart of a true American, who taught me that it was

wrong. And by the grace of God, there were brave African-Americans like

Congressman John Lewis, who risked their lives time and time again to

make it right. And there were white Americans like Congressman Bob

Filner, a freedom rider on the bus with John Lewis, in the long, noble

struggle for civil rights, who knew that it was a struggle to free white

people, too.

To be sure, there is old, unfinished business between black and

white Americans, but the classic American dilemma has now become many

dilemmas of race and ethnicity. We see it in the tension between black

and Hispanic customers and their Korean or Arab grocers; in a resurgent

anti-Semitism even on some college campuses; in a hostility toward new

immigrants from Asia to the Middle East to the former communist

countries to Latin America and the Caribbean--even those whose hard work

and strong families have brought them success in the American way.

We see a disturbing tendency to wrongly attribute to entire groups,

including the white majority, the objectionable conduct of a few

members. If a black American commits a crime, condemn the act. But

remember that most African-Americans are hard-working, law-abiding

citizens. If a Latino gang member deals drugs, condemn the act. But

remember the vast majority of Hispanics are responsible citizens who

also deplore the scourge of drugs in our life. If white teenagers beat a

young African-American boy almost to death just because of his race, for

God's sake condemn the act. But remember the overwhelming majority of

white people will find it just as hateful. If an Asian merchant

discriminates against her customers of another minority group, call her

on it. But remember, too, that many, many Asians have borne the burden

of prejudice and do not want anyone else to feel it.

Remember too, in spite of the persistence of prejudice, we are more

integrated than ever. More of us share neighborhoods and work and school

and social activities, religious life, even love and marriage across

racial lines than ever before. More of us enjoy each other's company and

distinctive cultures than ever before. And more

than ever, we understand the benefits of our racial, linguistic, and

cultural diversity in a global society, where networks of commerce and

communications draw us closer and bring rich rewards to those who truly

understand life beyond their nation's borders.

With just a twentieth of the world's population, but a fifth of the

world's income, we in America simply have to sell to the other 95

percent of the world's consumers just to maintain our standard of

living. Because we are drawn from every culture on Earth, we are

uniquely positioned to do it. Beyond commerce, the diverse backgrounds

and talents of our citizens can help America to light the globe, showing

nations deeply divided by race, religion, and tribe that there is a

better way.

Finally, as you have shown us today, our diversity will enrich our

lives in nonmaterial ways, deepening our understanding of human nature

and human differences, making our communities more exciting, more

enjoyable, more meaningful. That is why I have come here today to ask

the American people to join me in a great national effort to perfect the

promise of America for this new time as we seek to build our more

perfect Union.

Now, when there is more cause for hope than fear, when we are not

driven to it by some emergency or social cataclysm, now is

[[Page 879]]

the time we should learn together, talk together, and act together to

build one America.

Let me say that I know that for many white Americans, this

conversation may seem to exclude them or threaten them. That must not be

so. I believe white Americans have just as much to gain as anybody else

from being a part of this endeavor--much to gain from an America where

we finally take responsibility for all our children so that they, at

last, can be judged as Martin Luther King hoped, not by the color of

their skin but by the content of their character.

What is it that we must do? For 4\1/2\ years now, I have worked to

prepare America for the 21st century with a strategy of opportunity for

all, responsibility from all, and an American community of all our

citizens. To succeed in each of these areas, we must deal with the

realities and the perceptions affecting all racial groups in America.

First, we must continue to expand opportunity. Full participation in

our strong and growing economy is the best antidote to envy, despair,

and racism. We must press forward to move millions more from poverty and

welfare to work, to bring the spark of enterprise to inner cities, to

redouble our efforts to reach those rural communities prosperity has

passed by. And most important of all, we simply must give our young

people the finest education in the world.

There are no children who--because of their ethnic or racial

background--who cannot meet the highest academic standards if we set

them and measure our students against them, if we give them well-trained

teachers and well-equipped classrooms, and if we continue to support

reasoned reforms to achieve excellence, like the charter school

movement. At a time when college education means stability, a good job,

a passport to the middle class, we must open the doors of college to all

Americans, and we must make at least 2 years of college as universal at

the dawn of the next century as a high school diploma is today.

In our efforts to extend economic and educational opportunity to all

our citizens, we must consider the role of affirmative action. I know

affirmative action has not been perfect in America--that's why 2 years

ago we began an effort to fix the

things that are wrong with it--but when used in the right way, it has

worked. It has given us a whole generation of professionals in fields that

used to be exclusive clubs, where people like me got the benefit of 100

percent affirmative action. There are now more women-owned businesses than

ever before. There are more African-American, Latino, and Asian-American

lawyers and judges, scientists and engineers, accountants and executives

than ever before.

But the best example of successful affirmative action is our

military. Our Armed Forces are diverse from top to bottom, perhaps the

most integrated institution in our society and certainly the most

integrated military in the world. And more important, no one questions

that they are the best in the world. So much for the argument that

excellence and diversity do not go hand in hand.

There are those who argue that scores on standardized tests should

be the sole measure of qualification for admissions to colleges and

universities. But many would not apply the same standard to the children

of alumni or those with athletic ability. I believe a student body that

reflects the excellence and the diversity of the people we will live and

work with has independent educational value. Look around this crowd

today. Don't you think you have learned a lot more than you would have

if everybody sitting around you looked just like you? I think you have.

[Applause]

And beyond the educational value to you, it has a public interest,

because you will learn to live and work in the world you will live in

better. When young people sit side by side with people of many different

backgrounds, they do learn something that they can take out into the

world. And they will be more effective citizens.

Many affirmative action students excel. They work hard, they

achieve, they go out and serve the communities that need them for their

expertise and role model. If you close the door on them, we will weaken

our greatest universities and it will be more difficult to build the

society we need in the 21st century.

Let me say, I know that the people of California voted to repeal

affirmative action with

[[Page 880]]

out any ill motive. The vast majority of them simply did it with a

conviction that discrimination and isolation are no longer barriers to

achievement. But consider the results. Minority enrollments in law

school and other graduate programs are plummeting for the first time in

decades. Soon, the same will likely happen in undergraduate education.

We must not resegregate higher education or leave it to the private

universities to do the public's work. At the very time when we need to

do a better job of living and learning together, we should not stop

trying to equalize economic opportunity.

To those who oppose affirmative action, I ask you to come up with an

alternative. I would embrace it if I could find a better way. And to

those of us who still support it, I say we should continue to stand for

it, we should reach out to those who disagree or are uncertain and talk

about the practical impact of these issues, and we should never be

unwilling to work with those who disagree with us to find new ways to

lift people up and bring people together.

Beyond opportunity, we must demand responsibility from every

American. Our strength as a society depends upon both--upon people

taking responsibility for themselves and their families, teaching their

children good values, working hard and obeying the

law, and giving back to those around us. The new economy offers fewer

guarantees, more risk, and more rewards. It calls upon all of us to take

even greater responsibility for our own education than ever before.

In the current economic boom, only one racial or ethnic group in

America has actually experienced a decline in the income: Hispanic-

Americans. One big reason is that Hispanic high school dropout rates are

well above--indeed, far above--those of whites and blacks. Some of the

dropouts actually reflect a strong commitment to work. We admire the

legendary willingness to take the hard job at long hours for low pay. In

the old economy, that was a responsible thing to do. But in the new

economy, where education is the key, responsibility means staying in

school.

No responsibility is more fundamental than obeying the law. It is

not racist to insist that every American do so. The fight against crime

and drugs is a fight for the freedom of all our people, including

those--perhaps especially those--minorities living in our poorest

neighborhoods. But respect for the law must run both ways. The shocking

difference in perceptions of the fairness of our criminal justice system

grows out of the real experiences that too many minorities have had with

law enforcement officers. Part of the answer is to have all our citizens

respect the law, but the basic rule must be that the law must respect

all our citizens.

And that applies, too, to the enforcement of our civil rights laws.

For example, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has a huge

backlog of cases with discrimination claims, though we have reduced it

by 25 percent over the last 4 years. We can do not much better without

more resources. It is imperative that Congress--especially those Members

who say they're for civil rights but against affirmative action--at

least give us the money necessary to enforce the law of the land and do

it soon.

Our third imperative is perhaps the most difficult of all. We must

build one American community based on respect for one another and our

shared values. We must begin with a candid conversation on the state of

race relations today and the implications of Americans of so many

different races living and working together as we approach a new

century. We must be honest with each other. We have talked at each other

and about each other for a long time. It's high time we all began

talking with each other.

Over the coming year, I want to lead the American people in a great

and unprecedented conversation about race. In community efforts from

Lima, Ohio, to Billings, Montana, in remarkable experiments in cross-

racial communications like the uniquely named ERACISM, I have seen what

Americans can do if they let down their guards and reach out their

hands.

I have asked one of America's greatest scholars, Dr. John Hope

Franklin, to chair an advisory panel of seven distinguished Americans to

help me in this endeavor. He will be joined by former Governors Thomas

Kean of New Jersey and William Winter of Mississippi, both great

champions of civil rights; by Linda Chavez-Thompson, the ex

[[Page 881]]

ecutive vice president of the AFL-CIO; by Reverend Suzan Johnson Cook, a

minister from the Bronx and former White House fellow; by Angela Oh, an

attorney and Los Angeles community leader; and Robert Thompson, the CEO

of Nissan U.S.A.--distinguished leaders, leaders in their community.

I want this panel to help educate Americans about the facts

surrounding issues of race, to promote a dialog in every community of

the land to confront and work through these issues, to recruit and

encourage leadership at all levels to help breach racial divides, and to

find, develop, and recommend how to implement concrete

solutions to our problems--solutions that will involve all of us in

Government, business, communities, and as individual citizens.

I will make periodic reports to the American people about our

findings and what actions we all have to take to move America forward.

This board will seek out and listen to Americans from all races and all

walks of life. They are performing a great citizen service, but in the

cause of building one America, all citizens must serve. As I said at the

Presidents' Summit on Service in Philadelphia, in our new era such acts

of service are basic acts of citizenship. Government must play its role,

but much of the work must be done by the American people as citizen

service. The very effort will strengthen us and bring us closer

together. In short, I want America to capture the feel and the spirit

that you have given to all of us today.

I'd like to ask the board to stand and be recognized. I want you to

look at them, and I want you to feel free to talk to them over the next

year or so. Dr. Franklin and members of the board. [Applause]

Honest dialog will not be easy at first. We'll all have to get past

defensiveness and fear and political correctness and other barriers to

honesty. Emotions may be rubbed raw, but we must begin.

What do I really hope we will achieve as a country? If we do nothing

more than talk, it will be interesting, but it won't be enough. If we do

nothing more than propose disconnected acts of policy, it will be

helpful, but it won't be enough. But if 10 years from now people can

look back and see that this year of honest dialog and concerted action

helped to lift the heavy burden of race from our children's future, we

will have given a precious gift to America.

I ask you all to remember just for a moment, as we have come through

the difficult trial on the Oklahoma City bombing, remember that terrible

day when we saw and wept for Americans and forgot for a moment that

there were a lot of them from different races than we are. Remember the

many faces and races of the Americans who did not sleep and put their

lives at risk to engage in the rescue, the helping, and the healing.

Remember how you have seen things like that in the natural disasters

here in California. That is the face of the real America. That is the

face I have seen over and over again. That is the America, somehow, some

way, we have to make real in daily American life.

Members of the graduating class, you will have a greater opportunity

to live your dreams than any generation in our history, if we can make

of our many different strands one America, a nation at peace with

itself, bound together by shared values and aspirations and

opportunities and real respect for our differences.

I am a Scotch-Irish Southern Baptist, and I'm proud of it. But my

life has been immeasurably enriched by the power of the Torah, the

beauty of the Koran, the piercing wisdom of the religions of East and

South Asia--all embraced by my fellow Americans. I have felt

indescribable joy and peace in black and Pentecostal churches. I have

come to love the intensity and selflessness of my Hispanic fellow

Americans toward la familia. As a southerner, I grew up on country music

and country fairs, and I still like them. [Laughter.] But I have also

reveled in the festivals and the food, the music and the art and the

culture of Native Americans and Americans from every region in the

world.

In each land I have visited as your President, I have felt more at

home because some of their people have found a home in America. For two

centuries, wave upon wave of immigrants have come to our shores to build

a new life drawn by the promise of freedom and a fair chance. Whatever

else they found, even bigotry and violence, most of them never gave up

on America. Even African-

[[Page 882]]

Americans, the first of whom we brought here in chains, never gave up on

America.

It is up to you to prove that their abiding faith was well-placed.

Living in islands of isolation--some splendid and some sordid--is not

the American way. Basing our self-esteem on the ability to look down on

others is not the American way. Being satisfied if we have what we want

and heedless of others who don't even have what they need and deserve is

not the American way. We have torn down the barriers in our laws. Now we

must break down the barriers in our lives, our minds, and our hearts.

More than 30 years ago, at the high tide of the civil rights

movement, the Kerner Commission said we were becoming two Americas: one

white, one black, separate and unequal. Today, we face a different

choice: Will we become not two but many Americas, separate, unequal, and

isolated? Or will we draw strength from all our people and our ancient

faith in the quality of human dignity to become the world's first truly

multiracial democracy? That is the unfinished work of our time, to lift

the burden of race and redeem the promise of America.

Class of 1997, I grew up in the shadows of a divided America, but I

have seen glimpses of one America. You have shown me one today. That is

the America you must make. It begins with your dreams, so dream large;

live your dreams; challenge your parents; and teach your children well.

God bless you, and good luck.

Note: The President spoke at 10:47 a.m. at Rimac Field. In his remarks,

he referred to Coleen Sabatini, associated student body president;

Georgios H. Anagnostopoulos, chair, academic senate, Robert C. Dynes,

chancellor, and Richard C. Atkinson, president, University of California

San Diego.