If there is ever to be any meaningful dialogue between America's diverse ethnic, religious and cultural groups, it must be inclusive and lengthy. What happened Tuesday at the Wortham Center was neither. It certainly wasn't a "town hall meeting" nor an open "dialogue." It was a 90-minute discussion between seven African-American athletic personalities, with an occasional comment from one of the token whites on the panel.
A real "town hall meeting" should be diverse, face tough issues and answer questions from the adults and opposition in the community. Instead, Clinton once again put together a panel and audience of people who share his agenda, hid behind a wall of children and called it a dialogue.
All of the athletes on the panel were of African ancestry. One of these was from the Dominican Republic, which qualifies him as an Hispanic, too.
Where were some of the other Hispanics involved in professional soccer, baseball, football and other sports? The excuse was given that none of the other dozen or so Hispanics invited could make it. That's crap. If Clinton had wanted a pretty young intern I bet they would have found one.
Where were the Asian athletes like Yamaguchi, Quan, Nomo, or Arabu? What about the Jewish-American athletes like Bernie Kosar? They weren't invited.
Republicans weren't invited either. Every Democratic Congressperson from Houston received ten tickets; Republicans got none. Finally, after a stink in the Houston Chronicle, one Houston area Republican received a few.
The audience was exactly that, an audience. What little participation was allowed was from children and obviously pre-screened. While the young people posing questions were intelligent, and although it is heartwarming to see a focus on the future of America, shouldn't adults have been allowed to participate to a higher degree? Or would they have asked too many difficult questions?
In fact, the questions these children did ask, particularly those by the Hispanics, were never really answered.
The whole conversation boiled down to one point - that there aren't enough blacks running the show in professional and college athletics. While I believe this to be an important issue, it isn't enough.
Other issues, like stereotypes about athletes of different colors, the disparity in wealth and educational opportunities between athlete and non-athlete minorities or how crime by professional athletes affects race relations were not adequately discussed.
For example, the panelists skirted the question of stereotypes in sports and race relations in the locker room, never really addressing them in any depth.
Part of these inadequacies may be blamed on time constraints. After all, it's difficult to cram everything into the 90 minutes the president could spare from his busy schedule. One can only wonder if his encounters with Monica Lewinsky were as brief and to the point.
Part of me is thankful that he took the initiative to get people to sit down and talk about things, but part of me is upset that they didn't talk about things that needed to be talked about and that some of the people with something to say weren't there. The greater part of me just doesn't care because I knew it would turn out this way, the same way that many people of color don't care because they know it's just talk.
Williams is a Second
Year Law Student.