by Randall Kennedy

About the author: Randall Kennedy is a professor at Harvard Law School and the editor of Reconstruction,a quarterly journal focusing on African American politics, society, and culture.

The attitude with which we approach our democracy is an important feature of it, as real and influential as legislation or the GNP [gross national product]. Thus it is worthwhile to consider the attitudes with which our citizenry approaches the various difficulties that confront our democracy. One of these difficulties is the race issue, or, to be more precise, that aspect involving the black- white relationship.

Two broad traditions encompass reflection on the prospects for that relationship. One is a pessimistic tradition, the other optimistic.

The pessimists say that racial harmony on the basis of racial equality is impossible in America. Many impressive people have embraced this view...