Comments by negative debaters in the July 15 Braver Angels national debate:

“A lot of this discussion is a semantic one … [Citing a Pew Charitable Foundation study that 8% of Americans of all races and ethnicities are ‘bigots’:] “Lots of people are bigots because a lot of people are jerks and jackasses. But that doesn’t mean America is a racist nation.”

--Prof. Wilfred Reilly, Kentucky State University, and author, Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War

“The country has changed greatly. My kids have changed the country … [Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, who made many incendiary speeches about American racism] “spoke as if America is static. Racism is still present in this country, and every country in the world. I am a proud conservative, but I agree with Presidents Obama and Clinton when they say there is nothing wrong about America that cannot be cured by what’s right with America.”

--Steve Saltwick

“If we define ourselves by the worst thing we have done, we reduce our ability to rise above them. … America as a racist nation can be part of our story of redemption. … If America is a racist nation is argued as a headline, I’m afraid it will do us in.”

--Monica Guzman

“America is much more than can be contained in a single word. … Just because we are pluralistic does not mean we cannot be united. … America, my friend, cannot be a racist nation, because the natural condition of human equality can never be racist.”

--Christian Watson, Spokesman, Color Us United