Race

nace PM FICE -wh P002 Back Hermin THE PRESIDENT HAS SEEN 11.22.95 Msonetta EMORANDUM curum TO: The Honorable Erskine Bowles Deputy Chief of Staff to The President FROM: Felix G. Rohatyn for 3 is In ------------------------- DATE: Thursday, October 19, 1995 The Million Man March finished what the O.J. Simpson trial started: namely, it convinced the Country that we have a serious race problem. The resulting calls for a bipartisan commission to study race relations is a natural outcome of these events; we are however, way beyond that. We know we have a race problem and we can simply refer back to the Kerner Commission report to review it. What we need to figure out is what to do about it and any remedies have to involve the white community as well as the black community. There is no positive way to improve race relations in this country that does not begin with a hard look at the problems of urban America. I believe that the cancer of race problems lies with the urban poor and unemployed, their inability to break out of their trap, and the impact on the other communities making up urban life in America. If we wish to focus on these issues, we should look at the problems of the American city from the perspective both of the black and of the white communities. Unless major changes occur soon, the situation in our major cities in the near future will be summarized by two major trends: white flight and black despair. Unless white taxpayers and their children remain in the cities, together with their businesses, there will be no conceivable way of maintaining a tax base and job opportunities adequate to the needs of the black and Hispanic populations of urban America. The combination of advanced communications technology, which allows more and more people and businesses to be located anywhere, and reduced quality of life, because of issues of safety, education and taxes, is steadily driving those who can afford it, mostly whites, out of the cities. Public officials in states like Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, etc. are looking, with trepidation, at a potentially enormous migration to their region over the next decade. As this happens, opportunities for the minority population of the cities will shrink dramatically. Even if the totally positive objective of the March are fulfilled, namely self- reliance, absence of violence and drugs, family support, etc., there will still be no