Racism and the race

I was listening to a major broadcast network news analyst and another political analyst discussing the tightness in recent presidential polls and they were coming up with all sorts of reasons why Obama might be doing worse than expected or McCain doing better than expected. They discussed matters ranging from recent drops in the price of gas to continued fall-out over the lapel pin fracas to the pace of war in Iraq. What they didn't mention at all -- not at all -- was race. Guess they didn't want to play the "race card" ... or, more to the point, they were probably afraid to bring up the subject. But for good or ill, the voters know that race is the issue lurking out there, possibly unacknowledged publicly but nevertheless present in everybody's awareness.

We won't ever be able to move past racism unless we acknowledge it and face issues relating to race head-on. That's not so much the responsibility of the candidates as it is of our news media and, especially, ourselves. (Never mind his brilliant speech in Philadelphia; Senator Obama has, after all, done more to do that than anybody ever has, just by running so successfully.) Towards that end, I commend the following column from the New York Times of August 9: "Racism and the Race," by Charles M. Blow.

Note: this was originally posted on ketches, yaks & hawks 10 August 2008