Newsweek is running an interesting article on Obama's position on race. The following quote interested me because I think it suggests something regarding the topic at hand:
Asked to speculate how Obama had managed to sidestep so many of the most sensitive issues about race until the Wright story exploded in March, Janis, his former student, says, "Obama never sees race as in its own special camp. For him race and class and gender are all different kinds of social inequality, and they are all interrelated." That nuance has led some opponents to hear what they want to hear in Obama's rhetoric. The Goldwater Institute's Clint Bolick, who is helping Connerly with his anti-affirmative-action propositions, says of Obama, "The fact is that he does not full-throatedly support race-based policies. What Obama is doing is opening the door to needs-based, rather than race-based, affirmative action."
While I suggest every person has some preconceived notion of other people based upon physical appearance, race being merely one such appearance, much of what is called racism is intertwined with other "isms", such as class.
