Reader: Obviously the country has undergone radical changes in terms of race relations over the past century. Clearly, however, our work is still not done. What do you think the biggest issues on this front are, and how do you think we should attempt to tackle them?

Raspberry: In my view, the biggest "racial" issues are only peripherally about race. That is, they present as racial issues because they disproportionately involve people of color, but in reality they are issues of class, lifestyle and other artifacts of our culture.

I’m thinking of two separate kinds of issues. The first—the one we talk about most--involves the disparate treatment of black and brown people: racism and racial discrimination. This category includes mistreatment of blacks in restaurants, jewelry shops and personnel offices. It also includes, to some extent, such matters as racial profiling. While too much of this sort of treatment still goes on, I believe it is a decreasing aspect of the racial angst minorities feel. I think that today, most white Americans aren’t racists in the sense that word once evoked, and most nonwhite Americans are victims of racism in that old sense, at least not to the extent that dreams are destroyed, careers derailed and lives ruined.

But there is another category of "racial" issue—the category that includes all the "gaps" we keep complaining about: income gaps, health care gaps, longevity gaps, test-score gaps, etc. etc. These gaps are identifiable as racial because they disproportionately affect people without money or power—and black and brown Americans fall disproportionately into that category. The difference, though, is that the problems they represent cannot always be effectively addressed by recourse to race-based approaches. We need to come together to improve education, health care, life chances for poor people, or out-of-the-mainstream people, or rural people, or people trapped in the hopelessness of the slums and barrios.

How do we tackle this? My preference is for a crusade to improve the future for America’s children—not by seeking out enemies to blame but by seeking out opportunities to help.

Reader: There has been much contentious debate surrounding the role Affirmative Action should play in higher education. Do you think affirmative action should play a role in higher education and in what way?

Raspberry: The affirmative-action debate is another example of the weakness of the racism approach to problems that disproportionately affect people of color. Cast it as a remedy for racism, and you’re stuck either with proving that blacks and browns are being kept out of colleges they are well-qualified to attend only because of their race (an impossible task these days) or taking recourse to the legacy-of-slavery argument (which, however true, finally stops being convincing; the great-great-great-grandchildren of, say, Colin Powell or Vernon Jordan, will still be descended from slaves. Should they be favored over poorer whites with higher test scores on that account?)

The relevant fact is not that black people need and deserve affirmative action (though some clearly do) but that America needs to open up opportunities to all who can take advantage of them. We need our people—all our people—smart, trained, productive and hopeful. And we need our children to have reason to believe they can make it if they try.

Reader: In your role as a columnist, do you attempt tackle any race issues facing America? What do you think are the best ways to approach these issues? Is there any advice you would give someone writing on these issues? Have you felt any particular approaches you've used have been effective?

Raspberry: I think the first part has been answered already. As for writing about these issues, it depends on whether one is a reporter or a commentator. In the first case, I would urge that the reporter take care to be accurate—both as regards the words actually spoken and, to the extent possible, the meaning and intent those words sought to convey. In the second, my personal test is whether I believe the two (or more) sides in the debate understand one another more clearly as a result of what I’ve written.