"Bargaining" with Race?

This is a very thought-provoking piece by Shelby Steele, a prominent black, conservative author, on the Obama-Wright controversy. It's well worth a read. Here's an excerpt that addresses the question, from Obama's point of view, of how to make a political advantage out of being black.

The answer is that one "bargains." Bargaining is a mask that blacks can wear in the American mainstream, one that enables them to put whites at their ease. This mask diffuses the anxiety that goes along with being white in a multiracial society. Bargainers make the subliminal promise to whites not to shame them with America's history of racism, on the condition that they will not hold the bargainer's race against him. And whites love this bargain -- and feel affection for the bargainer -- because it gives them racial innocence in a society where whites live under constant threat of being stigmatized as racist. So the bargainer presents himself as an opportunity for whites to experience racial innocence.

Very interesting. Read on.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120579535818243439.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries