One nation indivisible

the long version

Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson warns that we are courting racial and ethnic separation at the very moment we should be seeking unity. Both majorities and minorities are adopting separatist practices, and even our courts endorse separatist principles at the expense of equal treatment under the law. For Wilkinson, these policies are chilling echoes of the rigid division he recalls from growing up in a segregated state. Rather than unite us, even well-intended separatism solidifies racial barriers and guarantees our country a future of ethnic life. Wilkinson praises the multiculturalism of New America, criticizing those who assail immigration or belittle the contributions of minorities. But he laments the dangers of affirmative action based on racial goals and the pitfalls of education that does not help immigrants acculturate. He uses his own run for Congress to show how voting districts drawn on racial lines marginalize minorities. Rejecting the notion of an Inaccessible Racial Experience, he warns that speech codes based on that idea prevent us from even discussing our problems.