I 'll focus on three areas.
Progress depends on thoughtful people who are searching for good ways to do so.
And the most hopeful thing I see today is that there are countless people hungry for ideas. Discussion can lay the groundwork by promoting some level of understanding, but the challenge is to go further and seek joint endeavors, such as a multiracial school-reform movement or political coalition. We need diverse views, but there are a few prominent voices on the right and left that are too extreme or strident to be constructive. For instance, I have differences with some White House aides about the inclusion of Abigail Thernstrom at the President's Akron Town Hall meeting on December 3. Relatedly, many criticized the Advisory Board, chaired by Professor John Hope Franklin, because its November meeting did not include opponents of affirmative action.