In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

RogerWilkins served as assistant attorney general of the United States from 1966 to 1969.Thereafter, he was a member of the editorial board of the Washington Post, a columnist and member of the editorial board of the NewYorkTimes, associate editor of the Washington Star, and chairman of the Pulitzer Prize Board.When we interviewed him, he was a professor of history and American culture at George Mason University inVirginia. Roger Wilkins Q:You wrote an op-ed column in the Washington Post that was critical of [Washington, DC, mayor] Marion Barry while his trial was going on.And one of the questions that has come up a lot with black leaders is, what is the limit of solidarity? At what point are black leaders prepared to criticize each other? WILKINS:Well, I don’t think that black people ought to go out of their way to criticize other blacks, because white people work overtime doing that. Of course, you criticize black people when they deserve it, but you do it in a way that is intended to be constructive. That’s my view. Obviously, you can’t live by the principle that black people are beyond criticism, because that would mean you have no standards, and no community can get healthy and remain healthy without standards.So I believe that it is perfectly appropriate to criticize people, and I also believe that it’s appropriate to disagree with people. As you know,I am a very good friend of Jesse Jackson’s and have been a member of his inner circle in both of his campaigns. I think he’s a great figure and that his contributions to American politics are historic.That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be criticized. Surely, I criticize him in our private conversations and raise questions about things.That doesn’t mean that I won’t someday decide that I have to write something critical about him. My own judgment was that, over the last few years, Mayor Barry has been very harmful to this city and harmful to race relations in the city. There were a lot of people who took the view that this was an internal REFLECTIONS 59 black community matter; that it was inappropriate to criticize him because he was being unfairly besieged by the media, which is generally white-owned, and by a prosecutorial system that not only is principally white but also Republican.And it’s true; the media was unfair in my view, and the prosecutorial system was, in my judgment, disgraceful. But just because other people were wrong and behaved unprofessionally or even in a racist manner didn’t make Barry’s behavior better. It didn’t excuse it. Two wrongs don’t make a right.And it seemed to me that it was a disservice , first of all to other black people, not to criticize Barry; not to say to other black people that there are higher standards; and not to say to my own children, there are higher standards than this. It seemed to me that it was incumbent upon me to say that.And secondly, of course, the white community had to know that there are black people who are not blinded to standards of decency and honorable public service. Q:You’ve also said that Ronald Reagan helped create a climate where once again it was acceptable for white people to hate and give in to their prejudices. Do you feel that within the last few years that sort of response has also become more acceptable in the black community? WILKINS:What, to hate white people? Q:Yes. WILKINS: Never in my lifetime has there been a time when there was a lack of suspicion in the black community about white people.And never in my lifetime has there been a time when there was a lack of hostility in the black community toward white people.What I think you have now is a greater degree of bitterness,because dreams have been bashed.The black poor are demonstrably poorer than they were a decade ago with fewer reasons to hope for anything. People who are wallowing in hopelessness are not going to be restrained in their language; particularly when they bear the brunt of the society’s contempt.They will hurl back invective and contempt at the people who deprive them of every opportunity to have a shred of dignity and hope in their lives. So yes, they say unkind unpleasant things...

Share