11 February 2008: The four-letter word that starts with an R...

11 February 2008: The four-letter word that starts with an R…

He got up and closed the door before answering my question. But even after that, he spoke softly. That’s when I began to fully appreciate the irony of the situation – apparently in Merida an open discussion of the race cannot take place until the door is closed. Although many Americans would claim that the same is not true for the US, I’d disagree. In fact, I believe one can draw a direct line from the closed-door nature of that conversation in Mexico to the current campaign for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination back in the US. After all, as Barack Obama makes his run for the White House, I’ve noticed him strategically avoiding substantive discussions on the issue of race. Of course, I haven’t been the only one to notice. Several high-profile African Americans have called out Obama on his failure to openly engage the public in the problems of the color line, especially in light of the incidents of Jena Six. Ultimately, I believe his limited comments in this vein reflect a well-calculated attempt to avoid being perceived as “yet another angry black man” or someone “playing the race card” by his potential constituency. Thus, even in the US, the bottom line remains the same: the honest discussion of race is still a closed-door, windows-shut conversation.