Some leftards have their knickers in twist over the Williams Kristol piece in the New York Times [1]in which he declared that racism was not a problem and he rather not have discussion about it:
With respect to having a national conversation on race, my recommendation is: Let’s not, and say we did.
Ari Berman, Nation [2], among others, is upset, and deranged:
Preeminent neocon and newly-minted New York Times columnist Bill Kristol embarrassed himself [3] last week by incorrectly stating that Barack Obama was present for one of Jeremiah Wright’s fiery sermons and for neglecting to mention that his information came from the notoriously untrustworthy right-wing tabloid, Newsmax.com.
Now Kristol has embarrassed himself again this week by stating, in the wake of Obama’s speech on race, that racism is not really a problem [4] in America. “The last thing we need now is a heated national conversation about race,” Kristol writes. “Racial progress has in fact continued in America. A new national conversation about race isn’t necessary to end what Obama calls the ‘racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years’ — because we’re not stuck in such a stalemate.”
Donald Douglas, American Power [5], digs deeper into the subject than the leftards:
We have a large and growing black middle class (here [6], here [7], and here [8]), educational opportunities for blacks are more widely available [9] than at any time in American history, and the number of black public officials [10] at all levels of government has grown dramatical since the passage of the voting rights act in 1965. Barack Obama’s own success, and his initial calls to transcend race, signify how far we’ve come as a people, one people committed to progress on racial equality.
This does not discount continuing poverty and problems of criminalization among the black lower third. But no matter how far we come, racial recrimination activists will refuse to see racial progress, they’ll never suggest that the glass is half full. Instead, they’ll brand those who do as idiots (or racists).
The leftarded only see racism as white anti-black discrimination. The only solution they see is yet more anti-white discrimination. The left doesn’t want a discussion of racism. They want a discussion of white guilt and further atonement.