New York Times columnist wants Oprah to lead government commission on race

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last updated 8 January 2015

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wants a government commission to be one of Oprah's Favorite Things.

Kristof has been writing a series of columns on racism since Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri. In part five of "When Whites Just Don't Get It," the author suggests that the government create a 9/11-style fact-finding commission:

We feud about the fires in Ferguson, Mo., and we can agree only that racial divisions remain raw. So let's borrow a page from South Africa and impanel a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to examine race in America.

The model should be the 9/11 commission or the Warren Commission on President Kennedy's assassination, and it should hold televised hearings and issue a report to help us understand ourselves. Perhaps it could be led by the likes of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and Oprah Winfrey. [...]

A new commission could jump-start an overdue national conversation and also recommend evidence-based solutions to boost educational outcomes, improve family cohesion and connect people to jobs. [The New York Times]

Read Kristof's full column at The New York Times.