Jack - I've read something like this argument before. It is a bit cynical for my tastes, but I'll voice another opinion.

What does it mean to be "white" in America. It means lots of different things, just like, I assume, what being black means in America. It depends on your parents, where you grew up, what your experience is.

I am "white." Actually, I am of English, Irish, and East Indian descent. I have surname that is very Irish, but I have very dark almost black hair and big round brown eyes, like my mother's. When I was young no would guess that I was Irish from the way I looked. Most guesses were that I was Italian.

I grew up in the same neighborhood that Michelle Obama grew up in. In the 60s and 70s that neighborhood experienced a significant amount of "white flight" so that by 1975, I was one of 2 whites in my 7th grade class.

Why my mother (father was gone by 1975), decided to stay in the neighborhood is another entry in itself. My mother is 1/2 Irish and 1/2 East Indian. She looks very Southern Italian and in the Irish neighborhood in which she grew up, my guess is that she was very much an outsider.

I hadn't gone to school with so many white folks until I went to college.

What if I said I feel part black, or "mixed," as we used to say of children who had one black parent and one white parent. I actually wrote to Brent Staples, author of Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black and White about this feeling once. I got no response. I talk about this part of my experience with very few people; only with those whom I think might even have an ounce of empathy.

But what if we could all come to understand ourselves based on our experiences?

I can't talk about white guilt very well. At least consciously, I don't believe that I have supported Barack because of the "tacitly promised forgiveness." I think I supported him b/c I thought he was like me. And I think that the young folks with whom I am acquainted see themselves in Barack. That generation has much more experience with many different cultures in a way that I find refreshing.

The past will never die. Isn't that what Faulker meant? And I experienced people who distrusted white folks so much that even in the presence of a white child they could not mask their bitterness. I also experienced people who could see that white children were not little devils, just children.

It wasn't until I was an adult, practicing law, that I came across some really scary white folks. The kind that my childhood neighbors thought I might be. I think it was those scary white folks that Barack also knew, but didn't grow up with, to whom he was referring to in the "bitter" and "cling" comments. He looked like a snob when he said them, but I think he's afraid of them, just like some black folks are afraid (rightly so) of traveling to certain rural parts of this country. I think that was more about fear (and anger) than anything else.

Wright didn't negate promised forgiveness. He negated the goodness of humanity. He could have really opened a dialogue about these issues. But he felt personally attacked and he hit back. I'm not saying that there aren't people out there who wanted to do him harm. But those folks were the scary white folks I was referring to earlier. They were not going to vote for Barack in the first place, ever.

As a religious leader Wright could have talked about what makes us good humans. He could have talked about what makes us bad humans. He could have related his personal trials and tribulations and how he overcame them. He could have talked about how the teachings of Jesus made him a better human. But he chose differently.