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Yea, the words were probably wrong, that is, politically incorrect. We can't say "typical" anymore because we're "lumping everyone together," we're "stereotyping," etc. etc. But there is such a thing a common behavior, common reactions, isn't there?
I remember an interview given by Denzel Washington. He told about getting on an elevator in a hotel. There was only one other person on the elevator - an elderly, white woman. According to Mr. Washington, when he stepped into the elevator, the woman immediately and instinctively clasped her purse close to her body. In his recounting of the incident, he said, "I probably could have bought everything that woman had ten times over."
I don't think the woman on the elevator was a bad person, although obviously I have no idea who or what she was. She reacted the way women, white women of her generation instinctively reacted. That doesn't mean every white woman would react that way or even that every white woman of her generation would react that way. But many would. I have heard similar stories from African American men and women many times. Obama just used an unfortunate choice of words in trying to explain what he meant. Unfortunate only in our politically correct world. In the real world, he was describing a truth.
And, hey, Joan Walsh is inviting us to conversation on the difficult subject of race relations and the way we talk about them. Obama is, too. I don't understand why this leads so many of you to rant against Hillary and against Joan's columns. We will never have these needful discussions if all you do is attack.
