Race Issue

As a black man who has felt the sting of prejudice, President Obama is not only empathetic but uniquely positioned to advance the cause of equality in a country where skin color remains, for many, a barrier to opportunity and achievement. Yet throughout his career, Obama has been careful to avoid being pigeonholed as serving mainly the interest of African Americans; otherwise, he never would have been elected last November. The result is a duality to Obama's presidency. He brings aspects of the black experience into the White House -- using occasional street slang, installing a bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Oval Office.

Opening day of Santa Anita Park's autumn horse racing meet is Friday, and the jockey who is perhaps the nation's best will be there hoping to dominate the season. Duarte's Garrett Gomez, 39, won the Eclipse Award for outstanding jockey in 2007 and 2008 with skills he displays atop an estimated 900 horses per year, including an upset of then-unbeaten Zenyatta last year in the Breeders' Cup Classic aboard Blame. Gomez has endured a typically frenetic week in a jockey's life, upset by the broken ankle suffered Thursday while he worked out three-time graded turf stakes winner Banned at Santa Anita.

I am disgusted with Councilman Nate Holden's allegations that the grievances against Chief Bernard Parks aired by the rank and file of the LAPD "could very well be" based on racial animus (Dec. 29). This heinous allegation was made with no evidence to support it and is a slanderous attack on the representative body of close to 8,000 police officers. Racism and racial bias are serious issues, not some tool to be utilized, in the form of false accusations, for political, professional or personal gain.

Instead of invitations, they should be sending out apologies for "Our Family Wedding," a cake-and-kisses comedy that has disaster written all over it and not for the right reasons. Race as much as romance is at the heart of the matter with director Rick Famuyiwa playing that card in nearly every scene -- and a card shark he is not. The film stars America Ferrera, who's finishing her final lap on ABC's "Ugly Betty," and Lance Gross, a resident of Tyler Perry's "House of Payne," as the secretly betrothed Lucia and Marcus.

The first time, vandals pelted the house with eggs. The second time, it was strewn with toilet paper. Then, in July, Reginald Burgess, who is African American, and his fiancee, Carol Folk, who is white, found a racial slur drawn on their garage in chocolate syrup. There was a white cross made of toilet paper on the gate. Three teen-agers have been arrested and charged in the crime and await trial. So, when a city councilman recently castigated the jury that acquitted O.J.

The lawsuit against Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden is officially about sexual harassment, but the thorny issue of race has been a persistent subtext. Holden, 66, is one of the city's most prominent African American leaders. His accuser, former receptionist Marlee M. Beyda, is a Sephardic Jew who grew up in an Orthodox enclave in Brooklyn and was the only white person working in Holden's district office.

Race has bedeviled this country from the start, when the Founding Fathers ducked the slavery issue for fear of killing the nation in its cradle. Obviously, much has changed. For one thing, Americans are seriously weighing the prospect of elevating a black man to the White House in November. But as this past week's debate over "the race card" illustrates, there is still no subject in American politics as fraught as the color of a candidate's skin.

As civil rights leaders seek to mobilize opposition to Sen. John Ashcroft's nomination for attorney general, many are adopting a two-word rallying cry: Ronnie White. White is a judge in Ashcroft's home state of Missouri whose elevation to the federal bench was rejected by the Senate in 1999 after Ashcroft mounted a vigorous and unusual lobbying effort, branding the judge "pro-criminal."

Mayor Bradley has nominated another black to the DWP Commission, selected strictly because she is black, after the City Council rightly rejected Lomax (Aug. 14). If that isn't the most blatant example of racism and bigotry, I don't know what is. What about choosing the best qualified individual, regardless of color? I'm sick and tired of this race issue being a one-way street. AL FERGUSON, Caliente

It seems that the Black Student Union at Cal State Northridge objects to a white woman's teaching Pan-African studies. They contend the issue is not race but whether she has the cultural background to teach the courses. I wonder how the union would feel about blacks' being denied the right to teach European history or English literature, and being told the question isn't one of race, but whether they have the cultural background? BURT PRELUTSKY North Hills If your Sept.

As a black man who has felt the sting of prejudice, President Obama is not only empathetic but uniquely positioned to advance the cause of equality in a country where skin color remains, for many, a barrier to opportunity and achievement. Yet throughout his career, Obama has been careful to avoid being pigeonholed as serving mainly the interest of African Americans; otherwise, he never would have been elected last November. The result is a duality to Obama's presidency. He brings aspects of the black experience into the White House -- using occasional street slang, installing a bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Oval Office.

Since the introduction last week of Sonia Sotomayor, Republican senators wary of attacking the first Latino Supreme Court nominee have lashed out at conservatives in their party who branded the would-be justice a racist and have even predicted a smooth confirmation.

A college dean at an elite Vermont university confronts her own racist leanings in "Spinning Into Butter," a drama that will work or not largely depending if you thought "Crash" was revelatory or risible. This film adaptation of Rebecca Gilman's play has taken a circuitous route to the screen, despite Sarah Jessica Parker's headlining presence. Completed in 2006, the film finally arrives months after Americans have elected their first black president.

Race has bedeviled this country from the start, when the Founding Fathers ducked the slavery issue for fear of killing the nation in its cradle. Obviously, much has changed. For one thing, Americans are seriously weighing the prospect of elevating a black man to the White House in November. But as this past week's debate over "the race card" illustrates, there is still no subject in American politics as fraught as the color of a candidate's skin.

The race issue, long a subtext of this historic presidential contest, flared into the open Thursday when John McCain and his campaign chief accused Barack Obama of playing "the race card" to seek political advantage. Angry Democrats said McCain was cynically fanning fears by raising the subject and blaming his opponent. Obama ignored the charge but questioned the substance of his rival's campaign.

Barack Obama's friend was angry. The high school coaches were benching good black players. Black kids weren't getting dates. "These girls are A-1, USDA-certified racists. All of 'em," the friend said while the two teenagers wolfed down French fries, as the story goes in Obama's memoir.

Re " '704 Hauser' Braces for Race Issue" (April 7): It is wonderful that enlightened people have devised a new show that parents will "sit down with their kids to watch"--black parents. Unfortunately, the creators aren't as enlightened as I'd prefer. Armstrong Williams, a creative consultant, wants to make black people "uncomfortable" enough to re-evaluate their politics and beliefs. To this end, a white, Jewish girlfriend is being placed on the show. Unfortunately, Williams accepts "conflict" when discussing the effects interracial dating will have on story lines instead of its positive possibilities.

We are becoming a nation of hypocrites on the race issue. If we truly want to all live together, then it is not correct, politically or otherwise, to incite one racial or ethnic group against another. Statements by Jeffries put him in the same class as alleged cross-burner Tom Metzger. They both see race conspiracies, they both alter history to defend their ideas and they both dislike Jews. If allowing Tom Metzger to preach racial division and superiority is wrong, and I believe it is, then letting Jeffries do the same is also wrong.

'Mr. Streeter, you are a vile demagogue and a self-pitying bigot." It was one of the tamer notes to grace my inbox. Anonymous, of course, it arrived after I wrote two weeks ago that Karl Dorrell should keep his job. I added that, for some, race plays a part in their angry criticism of the UCLA football coach. Using rhetoric often too ugly to print, scores said that I coddled Dorrell and that I "played the race card" because he is black -- and so am I.

The lesser-known Republican presidential candidates condemned their top rivals Thursday for skipping a debate on minority issues and said their absence hurt the party's image and amplified racial divisions. Four empty lecterns highlighted the decisions of former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee to skip the debate at historically black Morgan State University.