Much Ado about Reid's 'racism'

Game Change, Mark Halperin's and John Heilemann's new book about inside stories from campaign 2008, quotes a private conversation from back then by Harry Reid:

He was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama — a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” as he later put it privately.

Now Republicans and the hysterical media are slobbering all over this and calling it "racist."

Well, of course it is -- as is anything that characterizes someone according to his race. But is Harry Reid a racist, in the sense of hostile demeaning of someone because of his race? That is ridiculous. First of all, Reid was one of the first people in the Senate who urged Obama to run for president, and he has been a loyal ally ever since.

Second, what he said is entirely true. America embraced Obama for his very real qualities and excellent mind, but it would have not likely done so as readily (and it was far from universal as it was) if his skin color had been very dark and his diction less elevated.

That is a simple fact. Even among African-Americans themselves, there is often a hierarchy of acceptance based on skin color. That is probably declining now, but it's still there.

Robert Reich said it well yesterday on This Week: Race was talked about in the campaign; but that didn't make everyone who referred to it a racist -- despite Liz Cheney's attempt to smear "liberals" who ignore other liberals' "racist" remarks. One can talk about race without being "racist."

So, come one, people of the press and Republicans: there are more important issues that need your attention.

Ralph