No Shades Of Gray

Two journalists find that on race, truth rests in the eye of the beholder--and the color of his skin

What drives history? Facts? Or people's perception of the facts? Twenty-five centuries ago, Thucydides enlisted on the side of literal, close-focus truth. His older contemporary Herodotus took the more expansive view that people's self-images and folklore and even self-delusions are as important as the hard facts of history. Myths open windows upon fears, fantasies, possibilities. The old bipolar question always comes into play when Americans, black and white, approach the facts and myths of race.

For example: What exactly happened in Los Angeles on the night of March 3, 1991, near the corner of Foothill and Osborne? The famous videotape showed...

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