Thursday, July 23, 2009

"The Emotional Issue of Race in America"

Offered to note the interesting shift of emphasis in the discussion of President Obama's response to the last question in his press conference. The first video comes immediately after the press conference ended; the other two are from later that same night.

Notice how the understanding of the Gates arrest changes when the discussion involves two white men, and when it includes a black man or woman. Tellingly, Fineman's comment that "race still haunts us" although Obama's presidency "proves otherwise" disappears from the subsequent conversations, even when Fineman is involved in them. Of course, the second time, he's sitting next to Eugene Robinson.

This is how we still talk about race in America.



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