As a human being, a black person and a woman I found reading Hitchen's article to be a a traumitizing experience. It is written with venom, malice and ignorance. Hitchens as white male(British no less) simply resents the possibility of blacks in any way, shape or form having power in society. Hitchens is a drum beater for Bush's war. I want to know why Hitchens is so fearful of an intelligent, educated, black woman. Chris, you can hope all you want, write all the evil articles you want, but black people are not going back into the cotton fields. I know you don't believe in God, but I will quote the bible anyway, "He prepared a table before my enemies" You can't stop us from eating.

Harriet Tubman:

As a human being, a black person and a woman I found reading Hitchen's article to be a a traumitizing experience.

"Traumatizing?" Really? I hope you never read "The Clansman" or even any newspaper article published in the deep South during the civil rights movement - you'd have to take to your bed with your smelling salts.

I don't agree with everything Hitchens writes, either, but it's your kind of victim mentality that makes it so difficult for any of us to have a reasonable (emphasis on "reason") discussion about race in this country.

Hitchens is hardly advocating that black people "go back to the cotton fields". In many of his writings, he makes it clear that he would like to see all of us - black and white, Brit and American and others - work toward a racial rapprochement. He is merciless, however, in his condemnation of black leaders like Farrakhan who have a vested interest in radicalizing and perpetuating the struggle toward racial cordiality by encouraging all blacks everywhere to view all whites everywhere as racist demons, and for all blacks everywhere to view themselves as helpless and hapless victims of the white supremacy conspiracy.

There are many factors outside the black community that have contributed to the plight of many African-Americans - and racism is absolutely one of them. But there are also elements within the black community that have perpetuated the crime, poverty, and lack of opportunity I see every day in my city's majority-black neighborhoods. Instead of allowing yourself to be the victim of a white British man's words, perhaps you should consider taking more control of your own thoughts, emotions, and actions - as a human being, a black person, and a woman, I'm sure you're quite capable of moving past this difficult time in your life (the reading of an article you dislike) - and take a more positive view of what you and your community can do to change those circumstances. And try enlisting the help of whites who have that same positive, hopeful outlook. You'll find a lot of us around, if you'll bother hold out an open hand instead of a clenched fist.

I don't think Michelle Obama's graduate thesis has much to say about who she is today, or anything at all to do with who Barack Obama has ever been, but Hitchens still has a point: certain militant African-American leaders are not in the business of helping anyone but themselves - just like certain militant white leaders (e.g., Strom Thurmond, John Birch, John Hagee, et al.). Aligning oneself with the victims and/or the militants will never bring us closer to that rapprochement.

Only by treating ourselves and others with dignity, respect, and lovingkindness as fellow human beings will we begin to heal the wounds inflicted by these power-mad thugs and bullies, and the centuries' worth of their ancestors.

If Hitchens's merely pointing out that Wright, Farrakhan, and their ilk fall into that category traumatizes you, maybe you're not as capable of helping to bring about change as I thought.

Strive -

I'll tell you one thing... you may have some reasonable-ness in your motivation but it doesn't come out in your post.

If you took what you said to the top-poster and substituted Jewish for black and ranted on about how Jews cultivate their own victim mentality you'd be drummed out of town!

What you are saying is not a racial discussion. You are not exhibiting the voice of reason. You are preaching, stridently at times, about how the black just refuse to listen to your "reason."

Well, that's not the way to a dialogue.

White on white discussions about racial issues isn't a racial dialogue either. In order for America to have a true national discourse on race, we have to have a black person in a position of power who is willing to put a foot on both sides of the divide and say something like: Listen. Speak. Hope.

In that context these are NOT abstractions. In the context of a true racial dialogue in the United States, Barack Obama IS uniquely qualified to lead us forward.

1. Hitchens's "race," gender, and former (?, he might have dual, I don't know) citizenship have nothing to do with his positions.

2. He's a strong supporter and personal friend of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and if she's not an "intelligent, educated, black woman" then I don't know who is.

From his book, Letters to a young contrarian:

To be opposed to racism in the postgenome universe is to be opposed to the concept. This realisation lags far behind the reality. Pseudo-scientists who work on supposed 'proofs' of correlation between IQ and 'race' are now rightly criticised because of the opacity and arbitrariness of the the definition of 'intelligence,' let alone of its alleged and protean 'quotient.' But they are surely much more vulnerable in the assumption that a person's 'race' can be defined with any exactitude...

For years, when I went to renew my annual pass at the United States Senate, I was made to fill in two forms. The first asked me for my biographical details and the second stipulated that I had signed the former under penalty of perjury. I was grateful for the latter form, because when asked to state my 'race' I always put 'human' in the required box. This led to a yearly row. 'Put "white,"' I was once told- by an African-American clerk, I might add. I explained that white was not even a color, let alone a race. I also drew his attention to the perjury provision taht obliged me to state only the truth. 'Put "Caucasian,"' I was told on another occasion. I said that I had no connection with the Caucasus and not belief in the outmoded ethnology that had produced the category.

Those are not the words of a racist, let alone someone who wants "black people" to "go back to the cotton fields."

3. Hitchens's article was surprisingly weak- I don't think Michelle Obama is a black nationalist or seperatist. She may be sympathetic to them, for whatever reasons; it sounds like she was when she wrote her college thesis, but I doubt she still holds those positions.

Regardless, I think Senator Obama's reluctance to distance himself from these elements is simply a political move, to resist alienating those who do support them or sympathize with them. Now that they've made a stink, it costs him more not to distance himself.

no race. Hitchens is a loyal fan of MLK. Hitchens hates Hillary Clinton with a red hot passion.

If you are going to spew self-righteousness and accuse the man of blatant racism [revealing that you hate Whitey in the process] then at least learn his background.

serious discussion about race in this nation is to tell far left liberals to cease and desist calling Whites racist anytime they venture out of YOUR politically correct comfort zone.

Also you jackasses need to stop with the "Nobody not Black can possibly know what suffering or prejudice is!" crapola.

I'm not saying that you can't know what suffering or prejudice is.

I'm saying that it is not a "dialogue" for YOU to tell ME what I'm feeling or what I've felt, what I'm thinking or what I've thought. Your thoughts on my experience aren't necessarily helpful in getting MY thoughts out there.

It is a sermon. It is a lecture. It is a "discourse" for you.

But it is not a conversation.

But let me guess - you don't give a shit what someone else's view of their own experience is, do you? You'd rather have your own opinion echoed back to you by either my silence or some cheerleader egging you on.

Some conversation.

And Gatewood - not EVERY Obama supporter is calling his opponents racists. Some of us are talking about OUR OWN reflections on our own experience with coming terms with our own racism.

I am glad to have had this opportunity. No matter how fucking fantastic you think Hillary is, she could never have inspired in me the desire or the reason to examine this part of my own self and my own family.

Even if he doesn't win I know that I"m better for his having run.

And I sure as hell can't say that about Hillary.

and then consider your typical reaction anytime someone non-Black [or so you knee-jerk assume] dares to opine on White/Black racial issues.

"Your thoughts on my experience aren't necessarily helpful in getting MY thoughts out there." Yet YOU assume that you KNOW precisely what is in the heart and mind and experiences of the White person venturing to discuss Black/White issues, so much so that you AUTOMATICALLY discount THEIR opinions, issues, and experiences with your knee-jerk diatribe on what it means to be Black in this nation and how therefore THEY are disqualified to discuss ANYTHING racially related.

You have been and you are continuing to be an utter asshole on this issue. Either alter your thinking or your auto-response or CONTINUE to be considered an utter asshole.

I don't care if you consider me an utter asshole.

My thoughts on how best to further racial discussions are based on work I do in my community. With ecumenical groups of churches working together, with woman's groups from the white community in conjunction with the black community.

I've worked in our city and county government on councils and boards whose purpose has been to mend the racial divide in our small, southern community.

Maybe that doesn't have anything to do with Chicago or New York or Los Angeles experience. But it is MY experience.

I have listened to people describe their frustration with white political leaders who talk about "the black experience" but don't ask blacks to express it themselves.. I have listened in meetings when there are people there who can help others explore and understand, but are silenced by the louder voices of business and political power-brokers. And I"m talking small town, small-time, not big national politics.

I have sat in those rooms and examined my own attitudes and my own assumptions, and found them lacking. And I've asked for help from other people to begin to see things differently.

You call me an asshole. Fine. I'd rather be my kind of asshole than your kind of person.

Any day.

you have been doing in your postings, do you?

I apologize for not recognizing the symptoms earlier. Get psychiatric help. Do it now, not later.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Don't get me wrong, I feel sure you're not at all concerned for my health - mental or otherwise.

Your venom is clear to you, but honestly I really don't know what you're talking about.

I don't think I've been furthering any kind of agenda in any post, other than engaging in political discussions based on articles and news stories and the thoughts of fellow Americans.

I've tried to share my opinions, some humor (although I'll readily admit I'm not nearly as funny as I'd like to be or as most others are on here). I read a lot. I don't watch news shows. I'm very active in my community.

I've said in numerous posts that I'm white, middle-aged, mother of 5, Catholic. From a small town, state college educated. Fortunate. A Democrat. Obama supporter. I know that I'm not perfect, don't have all the answers and won't have any world-wide impact.

I get worked up about some things, can sometimes be very respectful and sometimes I lose my temper.

I try to focus more on an issue and a way to illuminate it more than to focus on the poster - but sometimes I just can't resist the temptation to call someone full of crap.

C'est la vie.

I hated Christopher Hitchens' article. I have had the opportunity to be at two events this campaign where Michelle Obama spoke. I thought she was just wonderful. I really enjoyed listening to her speak, and I liked what she had to say. I felt included. Part of something. I have ever since this campaign started - I have felt that I belonged to some worthwhile group and that is due to the people I've met in the Obama campaign.

So you can deride and ridicule me. Go ahead, I feel like I've been getting that for the last 8 years from GWB and Cheney - a giant "fuck you" from my governement, evn though I go about paying my taxes and acquiescing to their demands that I be silent in the airport and not cause too much trouble.

I'm used to men telling me that I am foolish and stupid. I feel like I get that daily from the government too.

So, you'll just have to excuse me while I enjoy the time spent in the Obama campaign, and my delight in seeing Mrs. Obama at campaign events. And you'll have to excuse my petty rambling about not liking the almight Hitchens' take on her college thesis.

Or not. Rant and insult me all you like. Next time you look at your mother or daughter or wife know that I am someone's wife, someone's mother and someone's daughter - and that somewhere someone just like you is saying the same awful things to them that you spew on me.

don't know what you have been doing in your race response postings, and that is frightening. Seriously.

But now that I know you have 'problems' I shan't be responding to anything else you write. It would be taking advantage of the mentally handicapped, and I wouldn't want to do that.

Be well.

Hey artandsoul, blacks no savvy c'est la vie, only French blacks know is Coupe de ville.

Dobutsu-

you're joking, right? Whether you are or not, I personally take offense. Not only do blacks know French, but we know a host of other languages. I myself, am a polyglot. You probably don't know what the means, so I'll explain. I am a black American woman who reads, speaks, and writes German, Dutch , and Russian. Your comment was not only racially insensitive and offensive, but it's just flat out wrong!! You really need to get a clue.

SteelMagnolia-

Well said - I was just going to ignore him because all I could think of were vulgar commands!

If you read anything in my posts that points to some sort of bigotry or blindness I hope you'd point it out. My self-awareness isn't perfect, but I do spend some time working on keeping an open mind and examining 'core beliefs' to make sure I'm not just parroting stuff from my past.

Thanks for stepping in and pointing out the obvious - some of this crap is just insensitive and offensive.