I think this country has never really overcome the enormous burden that its history imposed on it through slavery. I continue to worry desperately about the degree to which African Americans constitute an underclass in this country, and an underclass that is not even heard anymore. I just think that this is the major issue facing the United States for the next . . . Until we solve . . . I’m not gonna put a time limit on it. I think it’s enormously important. It affects everything that happens in this country in my view. And as a country, I think we have an obligation to really understand how insidious racism is; how it percolates through so much of what happens in this country; and how we have allowed a group in this country – African Americans – to be marginalized in ways that are deeply hurtful to them and, frankly in my view, _________ to the whole country.

Recorded on: 8/7/07