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Originally published in the Washington Times on 4/16/2004[here]
John Kerry yesterday told students at Howard University that he doesn't
support financial reparations for blacks, saying it would only divide
the nation and "not heal the wounds."
"I personally do not believe that America is
going to advance if we go backwards and look to reparations in the way
that some people are defining them," Mr. Kerry told Aaron Nelson, 20, a
junior political science major, who questioned the Democratic
presidential hopeful on his stance.
(none)
The senator from Massachusetts said he
understood the deep-rooted "scars" blacks still feel in America after
slavery, Jim Crow legislation and segregation, but said reparations
would divide the nation, not heal wounds.
"When you mention the word slave ... in 2004,
it's almost a shocking, unbelievable notion that in this country we
wrote slavery into our Constitution before we wrote it out," Mr. Kerry
said.
His answer received marked applause from the
audience in the reading room of the historically black university's
Armour J. Blackburn Center in Northwest.
He also talked about his travels to the South
in the 1960s as a student participating in the Mississippi
voter-registration drive. The candidate praised Southern states for
making great strides to improve race relations, which he said in some
ways are outpacing Northern states.
"The South, in fact, has done quite well and
deserves credit for transitioning in many ways that the North hasn't,"
he said. "The North has been reluctant in some ways, and no one gives
them credit for that."
To win the presidency, Mr. Kerry will need to
win a significant portion of the black voting bloc. In 2000, nearly 90
percent of blacks who voted chose Al Gore, as they did Bill Clinton in
both of his presidential wins.
For some civil rights leaders, Mr. Kerry
stumbled during an interview with American Urban Radio Networks last
month when he said, "President Clinton was often known as the first
black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be
the second."
That issue wasn't brought up during the town hall meeting yesterday.
A medical student asked the senator about AIDS
relief funding to Africa and the Caribbean. Mr. Kerry said he would
"probably double" the $15 billion over five years proposed by President
Bush in January 2003. He said that 16 months later, only $2 billion has
been appropriated and the creation of a clinic network and a funding
disbursement organization continues to be inadequate or nonexistent.
Mr. Kerry added that because 40 million people
are infected with HIV or AIDS and officials predict the apex of AIDS
deaths some 25 years away, the United States and the world shouldn't be
"dillydallying" with the money.
On the topic of U.S.-Haiti relations, the
candidate said he wouldn't reinstate former President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.
"I think Aristide went astray. He was no
picnic, but what we should have done was held him accountable. ... I
will fight for democracy, but not a particular leader," Mr. Kerry said.
During the hourlong town hall session, Mr.
Kerry emphasized several times that there are issues in the country
unique to blacks -- affirmative action, racial profiling, small-business
contracts with the government -- which he plans to discuss and work with
black elected leaders and activists to improve.
"But the main issues of jobs, decent jobs,
health care, quality education are the same as everyone else in
America," he said.
Mr. Kerry also committed to the creation of a
post for an assistant attorney general for environmental justice.
He said he was appalled that in Roxbury, a
majority black suburb of Boston, there are six toxic-waste dumping
sites and that nearly 25 percent of children in Harlem have asthma
partly because "all of the trucks" traveling through New York City are
routed through the neighborhood.
The town hall forum was part of Mr. Kerry's
"Change Starts with U" college tour, which wraps up today at the
University of Pittsburgh.