amously, Orson Wells remarked “All pigs are equal, but some are more equal than others”.  Surprisingly, perhaps, this marvelous remark applies with great force to racial equality.  The difference between whites of my generation and those whom I teach is striking beyond measure.  Upon reflection, this should come as no surprise; for in terms of racial interaction, the world has changed much during the intervening years.  And this change has had a radical impact upon the visceral feelings of whites. 

My students have experienced a world of racial interaction that I know most whites of my generation did not so much as even dream about.  Interestingly, the argument I shall give in this regard has a very Aristotelian flavor to it.

At the outset, let me say that crucial to my point of view is the thesis that there is no substitute for the actual experience of excellence.  I may dream all I want about flying a Boeing 747.  I may even have good reason to think that I could reach that point that I can do so.  But none of that will come even close to having the experience of actually flying such a plane.  Again, no matter how vivid my fantasy is about being profoundly trusted by Susan or John or whomever, the experience of actually being profoundly trusted by them is utterly transforming. 

Two of my best friends who are happily married, one in the United States and one in France, have so trusted me with personal information that they have literally given me a reason for wanting to be an upright human being.  Likewise, a young medical student who has so trusted me in a similar vein.  Better to cut off my hand than to betray this student.  To be worthy of the trust of these individuals is to be blessed.  And nothing I could ever imagine could equal the reality of each of these three blessings.

Coming back to racial equality, I do not doubt for a moment that all sorts of whites of my generation believed in and hoped for racial equality.  However, the vantage point from which they had that hope was one of superiority along a number of vectors.  Most were financially better off; and because most held more powerful positions, it is thereby true that most were better-placed to determine the Good for blacks and whites alike.  By contrast, blacks were not in the position to determine the Good for whites. 

Not only that, the presence of blacks in public life was relatively minimal.  From television programs to radio programs, one rarely saw or heard a black; and when one did, it was rarely in an elevated role.  Similarly, the presence of blacks in sports was minimal. 

But consider the reality of whites born after, say, 1970.  By the time that they had attained a developed sense of consciousness of the self, the world was a drastically different place in terms of racial interaction.  From television to radio to sports, blacks had a presence in America.  Whites born after 1970 grew up seeing blacks shape and define many aspects of their lives and interests.  Whites born after 1970, almost certainly grew up admiring some black or the other while barely giving that a second thought.  For whites born after 1970, an undisputed black moral hero, namely Martin Luther King, Jr. had already come and gone.  Thus, the moral landscape of society had radically changed.

Perhaps all the whites of my generation wanted precisely these changes.  But there is no small difference between having to adjust to changes that one deems desirable and being born with those changes firmly in place.  It is rather like speaking a language.  Although one can become very, very good in learning a second language, one will rarely if ever speak that language with the proficiency of a native speaker. 

Aristotle held that in order for things to be second nature, the right sort of training has to take place at an exceedingly early age.  If Aristotle is right about this, and all sorts of people think that he is, then there is, indeed, every reason to suppose that, with regard to the matter of racial interaction, we get a quite significant difference between whites of my generation and whites born after 1970, notwithstanding the truth that whites of both generations embraced the ideal of equality.

I never had a black professor; and I am sure that the same holds for most of my colleagues.  Contrast that reality with the truth that for most of my white students a black professor is simply a normal part of academic life.  No one is surprised that this or that professor is black.  I understand that I now have something of a reputation on the Syracuse University campus.  But my being black mattered rather little 18 years ago.  The buzz about campus at that time was not so much that I am black but that I behave this way and that way and so forth. 

Now, all of this brings me to a most poignant observation, which speaks so very much to the reason why I am deeply, deeply moved by Frederick Douglass’s observations about the importance of gratitude.

However, much most whites of my generation may have believed in equality, it almost never happened that such a white owed a black enormous gratitude because the black had been instrumental in the white having a successful career or merely because the black played a pivotal role in shaping their intellectual development.  Whites of my generation rarely know the visceral experience of being indebted to a black for their survival and intellectual well-being.   

Not so with whites born after 1970; and let me focus upon intellectual well-beign.  Many of the whites born after 1970 may have had a black professor who played a truly pivotal role in shaping their intellectual life.  Whites of my generation did not have a black such as Cornell West or Thomas Sowell or Stephen L. Carter or Anita Allen to shape and fashion their intellectual views.  But for whites born after 1970, these and other blacks have simply been a part of the intellectual landscape.  There are numerous blacks who have played a pivotal role in the intellectual development of this or that white.  And these whites have enormous gratitude for the good that was done by these on their behalf.  And not only that, so do the parents of these whites—something that would have simply been an impossibility for the whites of my generation.

Gratitude is a most intangible good.  Yet, it is very, very real.  It is, in fact, one of the ways in which we acknowledge another’s moral personhood.  Accordingly, it is not at all a trivial fact that this symmetry in gratitude has come about between whites and blacks.  This is to bring equality to a most visceral level; and it is excellence at this visceral level that I take to be the true measure of equality between any two ethnic groups.  Equality at its best comes from the heart.  And we do not have genuine gratitude unless it comes from the heart.  So when we have genuine gratitude routinely occurring between members of any two ethnic groups, it follows that we equality between them. 

There is no small difference for the better between whites of my generation and whites born after 1970.  Most whites born before I was born could not be caught whistling in public the tune of a song sung by a black.  Today, white students listening to black rap music have no concept of the fact that they are doing what their grandparents would have deemed unthinkable, unacceptable, and morally inappropriate.  This simple reality is a vector that serves as a most sublime measure of the extraordinary distance we have traveled.  So it is: racial equality Then and Now.