Not everyone at President Obama's healthcare rally at the University of Maryland on September 17 was as "fired up and ready to go" as he was. There were frat boys clowning around, students excited to see a president--any president--young men in matching T-shirts who were there solely because of their sheet metal workers union and one antiabortion activist with remarkable lungs. But it's safe to say that on that drizzly day, the Comcast Center was packed with 12,000 mostly young people who supported the president and his healthcare plan. As the marching band played "Copacabana" not once, not twice, but three times, student volunteers made sure the spectators--some of whom had lined up at 5:30 am--stayed within the cordoned areas. Young women in Healthcare '09 T-shirts craned to catch a glimpse of Obama, and after he finally emerged there was a cacophony of "I love you, Barack!"

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won 66 percent of voters under 30, increasing the Democratic share of the youth vote by 12 percent over 2004. Young people were among Obama's earliest and most important supporters; people under 30, for example, represented Obama's margin of victory in Iowa, the crucial first caucus. Rallies like this one, with thousands of young people putting their hands in the air for healthcare reform, are the most obvious indication of continuing youth enthusiasm for the president. Plenty in the crowd had volunteered for his campaign, including Eric Stehmer, 28, a University of Maryland graduate who has been unemployed for a year and has only catastrophic health coverage; Mouhamad Diabate, 21, a U of M student who canvassed for Obama and has several thousand dollars in medical bills that he's trying to ignore; and Chrisi West, 30, an enthusiastic Virginia "supervolunteer" whose parents lost their home when she was a child after her father got sick, and who seemed to know all the student volunteers from their work together on the campaign. more

More than a few naive souls hoped that the election of Barack Obama signaled a new era of racial harmony. Instead, alas, American race relations have entered a bizarre new phase in which tension is ubiquitous and almost anyone can claim to be the victim of racism. Former President Jimmy Carter lamented that "there is an inherent feeling among many in the country that an African-American should not be president," in reaction to Rep. Joe Wilson's now-infamous outburst during President Obama's congressional address. Also of late, the Rev. Al Sharpton and many others cried racism over a tasteless New York Post cartoon, Cambridge police were accused of "racial profiling" after arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home, and Newsweek asked "Is Your Baby Racist?" And although conservatives have long complained of unwarranted accusations of racism, two of their henchmen, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, have been shamelessly playing the race card. 

Politicians and pundits on both the left and right abuse the term racism to tar their political enemies. But decent people with good intentions also overuse the term as they struggle to draw attention to racial injustices that do not involve overt bigotry.

So let’s get this straight. Henry Louis Gates denounces a Cambridge police officer in Gates’ own living room. President Obama, referring to the Gates incident, says the Cambridge police acted “stupidly.” Two black kids beat up a white kid on an Illinois school bus this week for unclear reasons, and in a flash Matt Drudge makes it a national story. Rush Limbaugh cites the incident as out of “Obama’s America,” where “white kids get beat up with the black kids cheering.” Maureen Dowd suggests that Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” outburst at President Obama may have been partly ignited by race, with the epithet “Boy” hanging in the air as an unspoken suffix. No sooner is Dowd slapped down than former President Jimmy Carter weighs in to say, yes, Wilson’s outburst was “based on racism.”

The whispers among some of his allies: that those who loathe Obama are driven in part by racism. Demonstrators are shown during a rally at Freedom Plaza in Washington on Saturday. Photo: ReutersAUSTIN – Eight months into Barack Obama’s presidency, as criticism of his administration seems to reach new levels of volume and intensity each week, the whispers among some of his allies are growing louder: That those who loathe the nation’s first African-American president, and especially those who would deny his citizenship, are driven at least in part by racism.

It’s a feeling that’s acutely felt among those supporters of Obama who are themselves minorities. Conversations with Democrats at an otherwise upbeat Democratic National Committee fall gathering here, an event largely devoted to party housekeeping, reflected a growing anger at what many see as a troubling effort to delegitimize Obama’s hold on the office. more

“As far as African-Americans are concerned, we think most of it is,” said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), when asked in an interview in between sessions how much of the more extreme anger at Obama is based upon his race. “And we think it’s very unfortunate. We as African-American people of course are very sensitive to it.” more

The normally nonchalant Barack Obama looked nonplussed, as Nancy Pelosi glowered behind.

Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t.

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

The outburst was unexpected from a milquetoast Republican backbencher from South Carolina who had attracted little media attention. Now it has made him an overnight right-wing hero, inspiring “You lie!” bumper stickers and T-shirts.  more

Whatever happened to that “post-racial” America we were supposed to be living in?

Whatever happened to those warm and fuzzy feelings we got when we elected America’s first black president?

Whatever happened to being so proud of ourselves for having bridged the racial divide?

Didn’t last very long.

Whenever I read Justice Sonia Sotomayor's now-famous 2001 lecture, “A Latina Judge's Voice,” I think of my maternal grandmother's words at the kitchen table: "¡Ay nena, no tienes que decir que eres negra!" Yes, my Mama Cristina had a thing about my choosing to say I was black.

My mother is a white woman born of a Puerto Rican mestiza and a second-generation Puerto Rican criollo. She happened to have married a black man from a few towns over and spawned the two negritos among my grandmother's mass of grandchildren. And this one negrita grandchild decided one day she didn't want the color of her skin nuanced to the people who would ask her blond, green-eyed mother, "So who's the child with you?" Calling myself "negra" back when I was still a child was a very deliberate choice. Sonia Sotomayor reminds me of that choice when she writes: “In this time of great debate we must remember that it is not political struggles that create a Latino or Latina identity. I became a Latina by the way I love and the way I live my life.”

Small Beer, Big Hangover The New York Times

Gates sends flowers to passerby who called police The Boston Globe

Boston police, black leaders decry racist slurs by officer The Boston Globe

Gates case: What's race got to do with it? Christian Science Monitor

W.H. meeting set with Gates, Crowley Politico

Obama to pour beer over Amrica's racial ferment The Times of India

A Man's Home Is His Castle Slate

From academia, an outpouring for Gates Boston Globe

After Arrest, Cambridge Reflects on Racial Rift Washington Post

Welcome to the 'Club' NYTimes

Harvard prof Henry Louis Gates 'happy to oblige' Obama invite for beer with Sgt. James Crowley NY Daily News

Obama Says He Regrets His Language on Gates Arrest NYTimes

The Depressing Cycle of Racial Accusation Slate

Obama Criticizes Arrest of Harvard Professor NYTimes

Skip Gates Speaks  The Root

Gates, Obamas, Jarrett and Other Royals Will Create Lots of Martha's Vineyard Buzz Next Month Anne

Gates's liberal college town no stranger to racial dust-ups Christian Science Monitor

Black professor's arrest continues to rattle Boston area Los Angeles Times

Henry Louis Gates Jr, Decendent of Revolutionary War Free Negro Fighter John Redman, Gets a Lesson in American Liberty Anne

The Gates Case and Racial Profiling - Room for Debate Blog  NYTimes Multiple Opinions

As America celebrates its independence this month, the first African-American president stands as a testament to his faith in that statement and also to his own pragmatic political skills. In a nation where race has long been a divisive issue, Mr. Obama tapped a yearning for change with racially neutral language that transcended distrust and helped unite the country to elect its first black president.

At the same time, a growing number of African-American scholars are questioning the cost of that victory.

These scholars recognize that Obama still enjoys extraordinarily high approval ratings among African-Americans. An April New York Times poll found the percentage of African-Americans with an unfavorable opinion of him was too small to measure. Scholars also acknowledge the symbolic importance of a black American family living in the White House; every image of the calm, intelligent president and his apparently happy family counters myriad negative stereotypes.

But there is some concern that in Obama’s efforts to transcend race and unite the country, the African-American community could inadvertently lose political clout in determining crucial social-policy issues – from education to healthcare – vital to its well-being. more

Pa Senator Arlen Spector is looking into accusations that 65 mostly African American kids from the Northeast Philadelphia Creative Steps Day Camp were banned from swimming at The Valley Swim Club because the would "change the complexion" and "atmosphere" of the club. Those words came from swim club president John Duesler.

The staff at Girard College, a private Philadelphia boarding for low-income and single parent homes, has offered their pool to the group.

"We had to help," said Girard College director of Admissions Tamara Leclair. "Every child deserves an incredible summer camp experience."

I agree with Specter that these allegations are extremely disturbing, especially the comment about changing the complexion of the pool. That's astonishing to read in today's America.

I'm in a bit of a quandry, writing this post. Yesterday I challenged WaPo's Robin Givhan for not 'telling it like it is', and this moment I find myself in a similar quagmire.

Do I say nothing, or do I share with you the thoughts going through my mind? Perhaps in sharing my experience, I will reveal my own prejudices, so I willingly make myself a guinea pig this morning.