The solution, though, is not for white people to add skin colour to their personal image, but to acknowledge the advantages associated with it. When they accept that their position in society stems partly from their skin tone, they will also realize the disadvantages associated with somewhat darker colourings. Even folks like the new Polish immigrant, who had no connection with history's slavemasters, are partially responsible, as they inherited the oppressive cultural mindset by coming to America. Finally, white people must realize the new global economy is fiercely competitive, and will require the mobilization of all our resources, including those in the forgotten inner cities, to maintain our leadership position. This economic argument is an attempt to convince white people that helping black people succeed will benefit everyone, and seems to flow from the view that whites won't help anyone else unless they can see how it will help them as well.
Blacks have to make changes to facilitate the healing process as well.
First, they have to be more careful about the messages they send as a community. White people, and other groups looking in from the outside, are left to erroneously conclude that these things are what the black community values, and are how they want to be treated. Therefore, the black community must draw together and ignore these detrimental influences, and eventually, a more positive perspective will emerge. Next, they must reexamine the traditional story of today's oppression born of historic scars rooted in slavery. Black folk must continue to press the issues of slavery, segregation, discrimination, and other past outrages to remind the dominant class of the roots of todayUs tensions, but then they must go further, explaining how much of the current problems are due to more subtle and sophisticated issues.