Gore: Affirmative action necessary

DETROIT (AP) - Racial equality remains a distant hope, and America needs to recommit itself to closing the gap between whites and minorities, Vice President Al Gore said at a Democratic fundraiser last night.

The expected Democratic presidential nominee addressed 350 people at a $300-a-person Democratic National Committee event at the opulent, historic Detroit Athletic Club.

Earlier yesterday, Gore held a $20,000-a-person DNC fund-raiser at the home of former ambassador to Norway David Hermelin in the Detroit suburb of Bingham Farms. Together, the events raised an estimated $705,000.

The average black or Hispanic family has one-tenth the wealth of the average white family, he said at the Athletic Club. Gore blamed the gap on the cumulative effect of centuries of racial discrimination.

"I support affirmative action because it's still needed in our country, and we need to fight for it," Gore said. He mocked Republicans who say they oppose policies that take race into account.

"'We're advocating a color-blind society,' some of them say. Hellooooo," Gore said. "They use that color-blind like duck hunters use a duck blind. They hide behind it and hope the ducks don't notice."

Unequal wealth means many potential young black entrepreneurs never get the family financial backing that is key to the success of their white counterparts, he said.

The nation as a whole suffers when any group is denied full participation in its development, Gore said.

"That is a limit on our economic growth," he said.

The vice president aimed several barbs at Texas Gov. George W. Bush, saying the Republican presidential candidate should listen to GOP rival Sen. John McCain on the issue of tax cuts debt reduction.

Bush's tax cut proposal would undercut efforts to reduce the national debt, Gore said, echoing a view expressed by McCain before he stopped actively seeking the Republican presidential nomination.

"Bush said he didn't learn anything from McCain," Gore said. "He should have been taking notes."

After spending the night with a Troy family, Gore is scheduled to spend the school day today at L'Anse Creuse Middle School in suburban Detroit.