Yet while the Mall teemed with black men, much of downtown Washington was eerily deserted. Thousands of white office workers stayed home, citing traffic worries but perhaps fearing something worse. When it turned out they had nothing to be afraid of–the day passed with no violence and only one arrest–many whites were left to ponder their own preconceptions. The pledge the marchers recited so movingly-“I . . . will strive to improve myself spiritually, morally, mentally, socially, politically and economically . . .”– sounded like something all races could agree on. Personal responsibility, family values–weren’t they what everyone from Dan Quayle to Bill Clinton has been talking about? Then came the next question, expressed sometimes in anger, sometimes in bewilderment: so why weren’t white folks invited?
In just two short weeks, the debate over race relations in America has shifted from the bitter aftermath of the O.J. trial to an anxious uncertainty left by the Million Man March. While Simpson stayed away, on a golfing holiday in Florida, the march’s success raised many questions, answering none of them. Would the marchers really go home and try to mend broken homes, improve schools, combat crime and start businesses, or would the good intentions slowly dissolve? Would white folks see a new opportunity for dialogue about responsibility, or an excuse to give up on “black problems” and let African-Americans go their separate way? Would the march hurt or help Colin Powell’s presidential prospects? And what kind of wake-up call would it sound to moderate African-American leaders, from black churches to Capitol Hill, as they weigh what it says that Farrakhan can turn out a half-million men–and they can’t?
Farrakhan himself didn’t have any doubts about one meaning of the march: that he has arrived as a national force to be reckoned with. “You are going to have to live with me,” he proclaimed, promising to follow up with more leadership summits and a black voter-registration drive. Yet his post-march talk of a black “Exodus” strategy served as a sobering reminder that the Nation of Islam leader has more than one message. For while Farrakhan now talks the much-needed talk of black self-help, he still walks the walk of black separatism, tinged by outright bigotry toward Jews and general suspicion of all white people. Both the history of failed black nationalist movements and the sheer math of demographics suggest that that can only be a losing hand for black America, just as whites are only asking for trouble if they give up on the black struggle for equal opportunity. In resolving, among his other personal promises, to “stop blaming the white man,” Ben White seemed to understand that. Does everyone else?
