Every post of yours that I read is a pure joy. Thoughtful, accurate, concise and insightful. I wish I knew you, I'd make you my friend.

Thrasher, you poor thing. You suffer from Carpenter's Vision. Since the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, to you. But there are emus and watermelons in the world, too. {{{Thrasher}}}

It always amazes me that those who see everything in terms of race are incapable of imagining that others do not.

relationship between MLK and Black folks. I do not have anger but passion for what I do..

With regard to your issue about interracial marriages. I do not see any revelance to the issue at hand.

BTW some of my best friends have same sex wives so marriages with other enthic groups is not a problem with me.

I am a activist my focus is on white racism and it's pathologies on my community. My plate is full but I can help you if white folks are upset with your marriage . I do know black communities are more tolerant and accepting on mix race marriages than white communities which is to be expected...

I don't mean to beleaguer this point and I know it's not exactly on topic, but if Barack Obama showed up to vote in Philadelphia Mississippi circa 1960, the assholes guarding the gates wouldn't stop to ask him who birthed him or raised him or any of that, he would have been subject to the same intimidation and viciousness as my grandfathers and any other black men who tried to do the same. Yet the Civil Rights movement has no reference to him? I suppose the Civil Rights movement had no reference to Amadou Diallo, either. After all, maybe if those cops had stopped to ask whether he was a homegrown negro, or whether he was imported, he'd be alive today.

no surprise here really..what I have grown to expect posts like yours from whites in denial..

And I did make friends with her!!!;)

To Thrasher

I am extremely happy with my marriage, and extremely happy with my kids, and everyone I know (White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and etc) are also extremely happy with my marriage and my kids (and most of my friends, family members, and coworkers are very conservative).

I'm living the Dream (though I do wish I was surrounded by more progressive people).

Your letter was strange and disappointing. I am an educated black woman who grew up in a black family and in a middle-class black community that was very supportive. Most black people I know are voting for Barack Obama for the same reasons that some of my white friends are voting for him. I am still undecided. If I choose to vote for Edwards, it's not because I don't want to see another black person succeed, or because I don't think he's black enough. The whole "black enough" nonsense was something the race-stupid media took and ran with, but I have not had a single conversation with another black person about whether Obama is black enough. Wake up and stop with the stereotyping. Your personal experiences are your problem. Don't use them to paint the black community with such a broad brush. You are as bad as Cosby.

I really do , plus I am good at it..epecially up close and personal and in the public....

Obama needs some lessons from me...lol,lol,lol

Many times I have read you posts and thought, "Gee, I wish I could sit down and talk with her over a cup of tea." However, I'd never dare post my email address here. Can you imagine the stuff I would get from the trolls if I did?

I can also understand that you to would not want to take such a chance, but I would email you in a heartbeat if I could. I also just want to let my email friend here, who provided his address first for me, know that I do know I owe you two and will reply this evening.

Kissy face to you both, since Salon has no emoticons.

they would probably confiscate your keyboard and duct tape your mouth.

however, although it's true that LBJ was the one who carried out MLK's dream in the legislative arena, what people are ignoring is the fact that it couldn't have been otherwise, not simply because of LBJ's experience and dexterity as a politician, but because of the realities of racism in America. MLK was a black man who could not ever hope to wield the power and influence necessary to make his dreams a reality. Given the opportunities that LBJ had by virtue of white skin privilege, MLK may have become an effective legislator, or even president. Of course, if he had the same opportunities as LBJ, there wouldn't have been a need for the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act. Times have changed. It is now possible to imagine that a president who happens to be black can both inspire people and take pragmatic steps to translate that inspiration into real policy changes.

I am not nearly so common-sensical as you. Email addy from my nearly abandoned Blog of Bored Randomness: danaruns@gmail.com (http://danaruns.typepad.com/danarunstheworld/)

Thrasher: I am pleased to report to you that I am not "a white in denial." Thanks for your concern, though! In fact, I'm a middle-aged, mixed race, female, lesbian civil rights attorney. I think I've got a pretty good handle on the whole civil rights movement thing.

Ah, my friend: an offensive mouth does not a successful polemicist make and a successful polemicist, alone, does not social change make.

At any rate, you incisive attempts to challenge by skirting the fringes of offensiveness (use of redneck, assertion of caucasions as not capable of being humanist leaders) are duly noted. Alas, I would suggest your behaviour, rather than progressive and constructive would really rather be what Fanon described as the oppessive SadoMasochistic relationship between white (men) and black (men). Do you not rememeber your 'Black Skin, White Masks?' Clearly not as you opt to carry on bearing your 'Arsenal of Complexes.'

But since some haev decided to take it back into the early 1900s and before, certainly you would concur John Brown as a progressive caucasion working as a leader for civil rights, among other caucasoid martyrs and such since that time. To take us away from our amerocentrism, one could not say that 'Turks played a great part in commencement toward reparations to the Armenian community, as, on its face, the assertion is madness.' Nonetheless, a good number of Turkish scholars have indeed provided great progress forward in this matter, most recently Taner Akcam authoring of 'A Shameful Act.'

But uhhh, where was I going...