Post-Racial America? Not Yet, Civil Rights Legend Andrew Young Says

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2010 -- Ask Andrew Young, the American politician, diplomat and civil rights legend, about the tea party movement, and he'll all but tell you it's one sign the country hasn't reached a post-racial era.

"Without making a moral judgment about it, let's just say ethno-centrism runs so deep in America that we are hardly beyond this," he said in an interview with ABCNews.com.

The tea party "is motivated by a nativism -- an appeal to the good old days and people who are anxious about change and want to go back to the way they would like to think things were."

Young, who has spent a lifetime fighting to change American society for the better, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his decades-long career in public service, which included working as an aide to Martin Luther King Jr., serving as a Democratic congressman from Georgia, and later becoming U.N. ambassador and mayor of Atlanta.

Now 78, Young says it's time for the next generation to pick up his torch of social justice and economic empowerment and "walk in my shoes."

"Walk in My Shoes" is also the title of his new book, a collection of conversations about the "journey ahead," co-authored with his godson, Kabir Sehgal.

"There can be no democracy without truth. There can be no truth without controversy, there can be no change without freedom," Young writes in the book. "Without freedom there can be no progress."

Interwoven with anecdotes about love and faith, politics and policy, Young mentors the 25-year-old JPMorgan investment banker Sehgal on the importance of making money -- a lot of it -- to create sustainable solutions for "environmental preservation, ending poverty, feeding the planet and healing the sick."

"Uncle Andy is a big supporter of Wall Street," said Sehgal, a Dartmouth College graduate who grew up next door to Young in Atlanta. "You can't get through one conversation with Andy without talking about Wall Street."

Young says he has long encouraged his godson and other investment bankers and their firms, despite the industry's recently tarnished reputation in the wake of the financial crisis.

"I believe in humanitarian capitalism," Young said, "and there are good people on Wall Street." He cited Warren Buffett, Apple's Steve Jobs and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg as examples of responsible businessmen.

"Profits should be for a purpose. Profits should be productive. You should make money for producing benefits that make the world a better place. Making money is a good thing when it is made in service to humanity or the democracy," he said.