Andrew Hacker spoke about race issues yesterday at the Faculty Club Lounge. The professor of political science from Queen College City University, New York City, addressed “The State of Black and White America – Implications for the New Millennium.”

The speech, part of the President and Provost’s Diversity Lecture Series, focused on Hacker’s theory that explains how whites and blacks in America are separated into “Two Nations,” which is also the title of a book the speaker has authored on the topic.

An attentive crowd tuned in as Hacker spoke of the reality of race problems today. “Slavery lives on in the minds of white people,” he said. Hacker explained that whites still have a fear of letting African culture into American society, even though it is part of every race’s ancestry. “Whites must admit that we are all of African origin. Hip-hop and rap is urban Africa. Most hip-hop music is bought by white kids,” Hacker said.

In his speech, Hacker pointed out that over time, Americans have created a line between Europe and Africa. According to Hacker, this separation distances the two races. “The white race is a club. Once you’re a member of the club, you are 100 percent white. We do not have gradations. You could be trailer trash, but you’re still wholly white,” he said.

The witty professor spoke of whites who wish to distinguish themselves from blacks. Hacker claimed that once a community’s black population reaches eight percent, the whites move out, and the area becomes a black majority. “What you find is more and more white people moving out to Idaho and places like that,” Hacker said jokingly.

Hacker explained how American society misuses prisons as a device of desegregation. “The building of prisons and longer sentences is one way in which this country has been solving its race problem,” he said. Speaking of this phenomenon, Hacker provided statistics for the state of Ohio regarding prisons. “In the state of Ohio the black population is 11.5 percent. In prisons, 52 percent are black, over half. Tremendous disproportion,” he said.

Hacker has an impression that white people are afraid of the word racism. “White people say, ‘That’s not me. That’s David Duke. That’s Mark Fuhrman. That’s the KKK. It’s not me. I am not a racist. I am not bigoted. I do not discriminate. I have black friends,’ ” he said.