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Kenneth ClarkKenneth Clark
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Session:         Page of 763

Q:

Haven't some polls suggested that the majority of them did?

Clark:

Right. But that's what I thought. Maybe it's my stage of life now, but I don't recall any period in American history, that I have personally been able to observe, that seemed to have involved so many inconsistencies. For example, labor. The labor movement seems to be in a strange predicament, where the support for [Walter] Mondale by the labor leaders turned out to be a liability, and the labor leaders were not able to deliver a substantial number of their rank and file. Blue collar workers are becoming as conservative as white collar workers or middle class or suburbanites. And I have this peculiar, really undocumented unbelief that underneath these anomalies and inconsistencies that are having economic repercussions and difficulties for these very interesting people is the question of race. That race has distorted the vision and the perspective of white workers, and they may eventually have to pay for it.

And the poor blacks are in a peculiar position, because if they persist in demanding equity, it will seem to have a negative effect on the majority of whites.

Q:

You made reference to your belief that certain of these conservative blacks really have no following, and yet President Reagan, as well as other members of his administration, are now propounding that the apparent leaders, such as the head of the NAACP and others, are the ones who do not have the following, and





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