Electronic Journal of the U.S. Information Agency, Volume 2, Number 3, August 1997
Welcome Contents 
President Clinton recently delivered a major university commencement address in which he focused on the status of race in the United States. Now is the time, he maintained, for "a great and unprecedented conversation" on this theme. This Electronic Journal addresses race, its place and changing meaning in America today, in order to provide our overseas readers with a context for understanding this conversation.
For many, America's annals of race are written in black and white. Certainly United States history since the great civil rights initiatives of the 1950s and 1960s has been framed largely from that point of view. This bipolar perspective, however, is challenged by some critics as inaccurate and inadequate, given the historic presence of other groups in our nation, and their growing numbers on the American landscape. Indeed, many observers believe a more comprehensive view of history and a more equitable shaping of effective public policy will result from a refined concept of race embracing this broader view of the roles of culture and ethnicity.
In a sense, the term race suffers from a lack of meanings, or from too many meanings. For some, race is that distinctive combination of hereditary physical traits by which groups of people are characterized. At the extreme, race becomes a shorthand used to talk about ethnic and even religious identifications. But, whether it is understood in terms of color, ethnicity, or cultural grouping, race is very much a part of the human experience.
Race has played a pivotal, often confrontational role in the history of the United States, and the struggle to achieve racial justice, variously defined, parallels, inexorably, the achievement of the nation's promise and national goals in general. Thus, discussions of race frequently become linked to politics and political issues -- for instance, affirmative action. This term originated during the Kennedy Administration (1961-63). At that time, the U.S. government directed federal contractors to take "positive steps" to ensure that the workforce was racially representative. It has grown to include active legal and social efforts to improve educational and economic opportunities for minorities. Proponents and opponents continue to discuss the desirability of affirmative action policies, and this journal includes President Clinton s thoughts as well as the views of two distinguished commentators.
The President's call for a dialogue has stimulated a lively response, and the conversation will continue. This is an expansive topic. This journal will not provide a comprehensive historic overview, nor will we attempt to answer all of the great, lingering questions. We will provide a context for an appreciation of the complexity of the theme, with articles reflecting different, and even contradictory, views. The articles, and the extensive bibliography of print and electronic sources, should assist the reader in understanding this peculiarly American conversation, and perhaps suggest ways in which the American experience has relevance for other nations and peoples.
U.S. Society & Values
USIA Electronic Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, August
1997