If you're seriously arguing that race is dying as an issue in America -- then I invite you to go to one of California's racially segregated prisons.

You can make this same argument to the leaders of Aryan Brotherhood gang whom the California state prison guards have decided to place in charge of all the white prisoners in the white section of the prison.

Or you can make the argument to one of the Bloods or Crips who supervise the black prisoners in the black section of the prison.

The Latino gangs don't talk to the press, so you won't get much out of them.

But you could probably get one of them to tell you what happens to a prisoner when he steps across racial lines and says something friendly to a prisoner of another race.

It's not pretty.

After you've visited our racially segregated prisons, then you should pay a visit to the US Attorney in Los Angeles, who is currently prosecuting a very large hate crime case involving racially separatist Latino gang members who tried to "ethnically cleanse" an East LA neighborhood of all blacks.

Why are Latino gangs trying to ethnically cleanse East LA of blacks?

Because that's how they live in prison. They're made to live that way in prison, and then they come out and expect to live that way outside of prison too.

How can anyone possibly say that race is becoming irrelevant when these kinds of things are happening?

Getting out of our racial mess?

You really must be kidding.

When we have racially segregated prisons, and there is ethnic cleansing in Los Angeles, I don't think we're getting "out" of any mess.

In fact I think we're heading towards the real mess, not away from it.

People like you, Gary, just haven't realized it yet.

I appreciate this article’s optimistic point of view on racial progress, but like the others who have posted here, I must disagree with the conclusions. Yet, this article has opened a space for dialogue. And that is where the real value is in this. I am looking to further this conversation productively. I know King’s Dream as well as the next person, but that was articulated decades ago. I want to see a goal in our contemporary conversation on race that allows the entire nation to take ownership of “the problem,” and therefore invest in the “solution.” So please, let’s talk about it.

Above all I think we need clarity to move forward. What exactly is this “problem” we want to solve? Is it that there are too many black urban poor? Is it that “they” are disproportionately effected by detrimental social conditions? Is the rest of the nation is apathetic? Is the media’s portrayal of the situation distressingly inadequate? Perhaps it is all of these and more (I think it is).

And that’s an awful lot to talk (and think) about.

So why don’t we lay out the problems, one by one, talk about them. Listen to each other. And then see what kind of solution we want, where we want “race” to go. I beleive this is happening all over the country at times, but it isn't systematic or widespread. That has to change.

Of course, there’s a long history for all of this race mess, and that should definitely be part of the discussion, but we cannot dwell there to move forward. We’ve talked race to death, and it’s easy (and human) to get very upset about it. But we have to have an objective in this ongoing conversation or it is wasted effort.

So let’s talk about how these problems are problems. Let’s talk about how we can use our resources to deal with all of this. Let’s talk. Let’s listen. Let’s learn. And let’s do.

-Derek McPhatter

There are major hurdles to be overcome. The Pew poll found that while large majorities of blacks believe that they are routinely victims of discrimination; most whites believe that blacks are not. This is a fundamental gap that must be overcome.

One of our local columnists (who is black) has devoted her last two columns to this the part of the poll, the part Kamiya merely brushed over. Her take is that white people "refuse to validate black reality."

And then there were the responses to her column. The letters to the local paper in Memphis remind me why I prefer Salon. Three hundred letters in which white people blame all black people for every possible societal ill and black people blame all white people for every wrong they've ever encountered.

Race relations here are still pretty polarized.

It is interesting that most all of the letter writers have apparently misread the column. Mr. Kamiya wrote that race is dying as an issue, not that it is dead as an issue. There's a huge difference between dying and dead. Lots of these responses consist of "of course there's still racism", but that's not the point. Race is far less important today than it was 10 years ago, let alone 50 years ago and it is continuing to decrease in importance.

It is as though someone pointed to a sapling and said "that tree is growing" and you all responded that this is nonsense because it isn't a fully grown tree.

Racism is indeed dying in this country, but it is a slow process. Statistically people just don't have the same attitudes they used to and as the older generations die out, you'll see race matters less and less. I'm not saying no younger people are racist, I'm saying the racist ones are a smaller portion of each generation.