all along i tried to tell you that barack obama is a negro. but would you listen to me? geez. the problem really is that harry reid and bill clinton and i grew up in a world in which race was salient. that moment is passed; manifesting any awareness of the content of race (like clinton: "he would have been bringing us coffee"; a satatement of fact, a description of how it was), is unacceptable. the awareness that there is a social construction called race is taboo. but as you can see it can be instantly re-constituted: race is salient. the whole system suddenly re-appears in ironical form. i say it's still potentially explosive: race will make a comeback as a concept. or in a long series of rearguard actions for centuries, like christianity or communism or nationalism. maybe it wins in the end, though; who knows? america is never really that far from a race riot; if you enact it, it is real.