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At risk of offending Joan Walsh, I have to point out that she contradicts herself -- she says, move on, to Obama, yet harps on what isn't even a gaff. All of us are typical in one sense or another, despite our specificity and uniqueness. To discuss the broader issue you must generalize. There was nothing in Obama's generalization that was offensive or mistaken.
I think it is time for us white folk, especially those of us like Joan who claim to have spent her life trying to close the racial divide, to stop demanding more of Obama, and start demanding more of ourselves. We could begin by asking ourselves the key question that so many of us try to evade, pretending that we somehow are objective in these matters. That question is this:
If, somehow, you could at birth chose which race you would be born into, knowing all you know about our contemporary society, would you choose to born black or white?
Answering that question clarifies our white folk's understanding of the real racial advantage we enjoy in American society. So before addressing whatever speck you see in Obama's eye, take the board out of your own first. Maybe you won't be so blind in the future.
