Peter Beinart on Barack Obama and Colin Powell:
Think about it this way: Many of the voters who right now won't vote for Obama because he's black would probably vote for Colin Powell even though he's black. That's because they don't see Powell as a racial redistributionist, a guy who would favor his community at their expense.
No. White people who would not vote for Barack Obama because he's black would vote for Colin Powell because Colin Powell isn't running.
Ta-Nehisi has a far more extensive take on why "there's always a good reason to be racist," or, in other words, why no one ever actually needs a reason. I think the president has enough responsibilities without adding "psychotherapist-in-chief" to them, and I just find it sort of confusing that Obama gets ridiculed for being uppity having "messianic" delusions when its quite clear that the unrealistic expectations on him aren't the ones he's set for himself, but come instead from journalist types who keep insisting that he "heal the racial divide."
It's not Barack Obama's job to help America deal with racism. It's America's job to help America deal with racism. But it certainly suggests there's something accurate about David Ehrenstein's argument (forever twisted by Rush Limbaugh into a simple racial epithet) that some people see Obama as the "Magic Negro" prevalent in films like The Green Mile and Bagger Vance, since people like Beinart clearly expect Obama to be the instrument of their redemption.
In case they haven't noticed, that's not the job he's running for.
-- A. Serwer