How ironic that our first black president is not black. Yes, in the sense of the one percent doctrine our country has lived by for more than two centuries, he is black. But he is not the descendant of former slaves. He did not grow up listening to the stories of at least one side of his family passing down the history of the enslavement, lynching, and oppression of his forefathers and mothers. He is unique, in that his father was from Africa who did well, married a white woman and raised in general affluence. He has no relatives that were lynched or died at the hands of police choke holds. No cousins or brothers are sitting in prison for drug or violence related offenses.

He is like the son of Jewish parents who arrived on this planet after the Holocaust. Our country's African-American community were slow to embrace him. Even Civil Rights stalwarts like Jesse Jackson were at times infuriated at him. His lectures to people of color come off as paternalistic; as if he has no idea of what they are so angry and resentful for. Even is great speech on race emphasized not his own or his family's suffering at the hands of bigotry, but his white grandmother's fear of black people. If he wanted to stick a fork in anything, it wasn't racism, it was the one percent doctrine. He was not black, but multi-racial and able to represent all Americans, regardless of color. Were he not, he would not be President.

So, how ironic that the man least prepared for the centuries old dynamic of bigotry, fear, racial manipulation, disrespect, and downright hatred, is the one chosen to represent the final achievement of freedom from slavery. How even worse, that the symbol, the magnet for all still seething fear, ignorance, anger and elite manipulation that is racism is the one person who cannot stand up and call a spade a spade. The ugly right would love for Obama to claim racism plays a role in attacks on him. They are not just prepared for that, they are salivating over it. What greater way to separate him from the rest of the country. He knows it and can do nothing about it.

Maybe he does represent a new ideal of multi-culturalism, but that doesn't salve the wound that is our racist past and present. He has to represent that the children of the men and women who were dragged in chains to this country to serve the worst of our countries non-ideals are no different than the Puritans who landed at Plymouth Rock or Jamestown and deserve that respect. It isn't just about black people giving up on gangsta rap and basketball contracts, but all people recognizing that color is just a crayon.

He hasn't done that and the right is smiling and waiting for their next attack. Of course the attacks on him are racist. Listen to the non-right wing talk shows (where only the screened callers get through) and you will hear the unanimous verdict. Before Carter (who knows what racism looks like) there was Maureen Dowd (who doesn't) writing a column saying the same thing Carter did, but more forcefully.

You claim this distracts from the health care debate, but you are less than half right. The health care debate is a debate about racism. In the eyes of the right wing opposition, this is really about telling a struggling white middle class that health care reform under Obama means taking their money and using it to buy insurance for black people.

No matter how hard Obama tries, he's not going to pass real health insurance reform without first defeating this notion that black people's demands are the cause of white people's suffering.