A syllabus on race.

• Author: Clinton, Kate
• Position: Unplugged - Racism in the United States

For some white Americans, the election of Barack Obama was reparations enough. With an African American President, that whole "race thing" was done. Color us post-racial. But as the 2009 Summer Seminar on Race showed, to quote Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn qua Ricky Ricardo, we've still got "lots of 'splainin' to do."

Our tutorial started with the death of Michael Jackson. To the slowed, funereal opening downbeat of "Billie Jean," everyone struggled to parse the meaning of Michael--black/white, man/woman, son/father, success/tragedy. But endless hours of obitutainment for this trans everyman, facilitated by our national grief counselor, Larry King, barely dealt with the obvious fact that a brilliant young artist felt he had to change his color and features for pop stardom.

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The next unit of study was the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings. Cue the "wise Latina woman" and "judicial empathy" footage. Appearing before the deathly white panel of male tribal elders, Sotomayor showed either supreme judicial restraint or what a week's worth of facial botox can do. When JAG hag Senator Lindsey Graham bullied Sotomayor about being a bully, I wished little thought bubbles had appeared over her head: "I might have broken my ankle, but I will kick your ass."

Endless MSM fulminations barely dealt with the fact that this nation was founded on affirmative action. For white men.

And then there was "the teachable moment" moment. After eight years of No Child Left Behind, we can only afford moments of teachability. President Obama invited historian Skip Gates and police officer James Crowley over for a beer out by the White House swing set after Crowley arrested Gates in Cambridge and especially after the honest, unguarded moment when Obama said the police had "acted stupidly." We never heard what they talked about, only what kind of beers they had, but this was progress.

The final civics lesson before the fall term involved one of...