More.

In the last post I did not say Reid's comment weren't racist. They were. Though, I must admit to not understanding what qualifies as "racist" anymore. The word has become all but useless. But his foolish remark is certainly odious in the extreme.

What I was trying to get at in that post is that - in 1950s era language - Reid was reflecting what many white voters thought. Therein lies the real conversation -the conversation this asinine dance of outrage and apology obscures. Candidate Obama was a "safe black" for whites. To refuse to air this calculation in many white voter's minds is flat out dishonest. But we keep doing just that - refusing to own the calculation. We keep pretending it wasn't a factor.

Reid's problem isn't that he is some racist outlier but that he said what he said in a stupid, offensive way. Whites dashing to the bullhorn to declare Reid a horrible racist are disingenuous in the extreme. Reid's no different than legions of whites of in this country. Most would never say "Negro dialect" because most are not stuck in 1957. But plenty mentally updated his archaic phraseology to make peace with Obama in their minds.

And it's ugly but it's true: light skinned blacks are more acceptable to whites. Is that racist? Yes. Is "Reid saying 'light skined' racist? Yes. But I see no reason to deny what is reality to many.

To some degree what I'm saying is that these periodic eruptions on race - with their specific plot points of outrage, apology, then fade out until the next one - are a way of submerging deeper conversations. Conversations that go to the actual pain, resentment and confusion throughout this issue on both sides. And they damage blacks more than whites. This moment will be neatly packaged and disposed of in a few more news cycles and the long awaited conversation of race will, once again, be shunted aside. White Americans are being let off the hook here, not black Americans.

These moments have turned into a game in American culture in which nothing is resolved or moved forward because white people won't own that Reid's comments reflected what a lot of whites thought. I want that truth owned.

Right now Reid is getting retrofitted, by blacks and whites alike, as a good and decent man who misspoke. This is bullshit. Reid meant exactly what he said. (He used the words he used because he's of a generation that thinks in those terms.) Why not start the outrage from there? What if Reid was speaking for millions? Regardless of the neanderthal wording - the fact remains: Many whites voted for this particular black man because he was just white enough and it made them feel good about themselves. Not only is this no way to elect a President - it's smug and condescending.