In the Discussion of Race We Need Rational Social Correction

Rod Dre her has a great column with great links that I am in the AMEN corner on. See Navigating the racial minefield

I think all of that is so true. We have entered the land of the absurd on this. White folks as the Atlantic author states so well that write " about race are always walking a minefield..."

Part of this is the racism charge is too easily thrown out as any McCain supporter can tell you. Do people recall the the funny ads that were run against Rep Ford in the Tennessee Senate and then later against Obama that had cute white blonds in it. The Ford Ad was funny (This was the whole Playboy Mansion ad).There were charges in both that its was some racist anti racial mixing of the races that was targeted toward the rednecks blah blah. Nonsense it was funny not racist.

The latest was of course the now infamous South Carolina Rep /Obama State of the Union episode. Dowd of the New York Times wrote that silly column after hearing racist voices in her head . She went through the check list

White - check
Southern-check
republican-check
deep south southern accent- check

RACIST!!!

This is not helpful and not a good way to run a country. In Rod's piece:
No, what we must privilege is behavior, and this is why I think we have to return social correction to our racial dialogue. We all have racial prejudice, and sometimes, we say and do things that are insensitive or biased. These behaviors have to be corrected the same way any are, through gentle- and if warranted, not so gentle- reminders about what is and isn't socially acceptable behavior.
For this to happen, however, cries of racism cannot amount to "you are a bad person; you must be excommunicated. Prepare for your shunning." People must hear "What you said or did was racist", not "You are a racist." Accusations of racism should become more prevalent, but have less at stake. Racism must become another socially corrected behavior, like mild sexual harassment, excessive profanity or boorishness. Familiarity must build moderation.

This is important because we must have corrigibility; we must have correctability. No one is an end. Everyone is a process. Even the most noxious racist must have the ability for repentance, though we are under no obligation to invite them back into respectability. I am not suggesting that we should never have harsh censure for those who are persistently, maliciously racist. But we must keep the question open, and we must give everyone the ability to make a good-faith effort at ending their own racially unjust behavior.

I agree with this. For instance an example of how this was not handled right was the IMUS episode over the women's basketball team.

This is also why I am not one of those conservative bloggers that seems to want to point out when race issues come up that Senator Byrd was a Klansman in his youth. I am not sure what proves or means today. Again this is a two way street and both sides at times play the racism card.