What is amazing to me about this Much Ado About Nothing is that there is this focus on the word "typical" without any attempt at understanding of what the message was.

It was a very interesting point Obama was making, and obviously a risky and brave move considering the amount of bile it seems to have stirred up on these boards (although I haven't heard about it anywhere else, so maybe it's only canncom members with the tender, sensitive, delicate, easily bruised feelings.)

His point was that he did NOT think his grandmother was a racist in the sense of harboring racial animosity. But she did have her fearful reactions to black people that come off the wrong way, and in private company she sometimes spoke about blacks in derrogatory ways. But she also raised and loved a black grandson. So it is an illustration of the complexity of how people deal with race in the US. And it is even more complex for the generations of people who lived through Jim Crow and segregation and Civil Rights, like his grandmother and reverend Wright.

For those generations, I would say this kind of race conciousness, even if it is not out of true racism, is "typical." Does anyone have a different experience with their own grandparents? I know that my own grandparents definitely used derogatory terms to describe people of other races. They weren't Klan members, and they didn't have problems with being in the same elevator or working at the same job with people of different races, but they'd use the insulting terms when they weren't in mixed company.

Each generation, it seems like the problem abates a bit, but it is still there, isn't it? It diminished during my parents' generation, and diminished even more in mine, but there is still some kind of racial "awareness" and caution, even among people who find racism abhorent. I find racism abhorent, but I know I have my own gut reactions to people of different races too.

I may be ruining my chances of a future political career here (Ha!), but I'd say the "typical white person" is cautious of black poeple, even if they don't harbor any animosity toward blacks. When they see a black person they are instantly aware the person is of another race, and they wonder how this person will react to them, based on race. It's not the same reaction they get when they see another white person. I'd say the "typical black person" has a similar reaction to whites.

How many times have you seen a politicain brave this kind of subject? It's complicated and sensitive, and it's going to be hard to discuss it if everyone tries to oversimplify it by jumping on words like "typical" as though it is a racist insult. If you think "typical" is racist, what do you think of what your granny used to call blacks and hispanics?

And to the poeple who keep bringing up the idea that it is wrong for a group of people to expect special treatment, especially to those who think it is wrong for blacks to expect special consideration when getting a job or applying to school, you should listen to Obama's speech on race. He acknowledged white resentment about these kinds of preferential treatments. How many times have you seen a black politician willing to go to that issue? Maybe before forming your own reactionary opinions about what a "typical" black politician must think about race, maybe try to listen to what Obama is actually SAYING about race. It's not the same old "typical" crap.