I disagree.

In my opinion, the problem with PC is that it constantly pretends to find racism where there is none.

Jeremiah Wright’s racism is open and apparent. Barack Obama’s association with him could hardly be more intimate. There is nothing “PC” about objecting to Barack Obama on that basis.

What Murray and Obama seem to have in common is that they express some interest in understanding this difficult subject, rather than in striking the appropriate, expected poses.

Poses! Second:

[T]he only chance of getting rid of the double standard is to break the habit of ritually condemning and ostracising offenders.

Well put.

I find this a little odd. Obama is not accused of making racist statements, so why should he be expected to act contrite. I’m not even clear about whether Wright is being accused of racism, or only of being overly angry and unpatriotically blaming America. What I also find odd is the notion that there’s a double standard here. I’m not aware of Mitt Romney being required to denounce Brigham Young and leave the Mormon Church because of its long history of racist policies and statements. Why would Obama be required to leave because the leader of his Church made comments of far lesser umbrage? If’ there’s a double-standard in regards to one’s religious and political associates, it seems to be wieghted in favor of the right, not the left.

And this whole thing about educated elites being full of nuanced understanding – what a load of crap. I never went to college, I’ve worked in blue-collar jobs and worse my whole life, and I get what Obama is about just fine. I can recognize a good man when I see one, without all the blathering analysis. As can my colleagues in the lower classes.

Amen, amen, amen.

It is not the comments of Rev. Wright per se that will continue to dog Obama, as virtually no evidence exists that Obama holds these views, barring a minority that is stretching to see in Obama the second coming of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X. Obama could have given a thoughtful speech about race relations in America at any time during this campaign. Obama’s speech, eloquent as it was, was transparently political and frankly a little arrogant; subtly shifting from the “Look at me and my pastor” to “Look at yourselves, America” framed in the context of a “frank” discussion of racial issues. I will confess to sometimes getting overly wrapped up in Obama’ rhetoric, and a few days of pondering the speech has left me much cooler to it than my initial impression.

I think your point is insightful, and largely correct as far as I goes. But let’s try a little counterfactual. Let us assume, for a moment, that the whole “PC” phenomenon never existed. It’s true, I think, that the particular form that opposition to the speech, and the whole issue of Rev. Wright, has taken would not be present absent the whole “PC” phenomenon.

But I wonder – while the form of the negative reaction would have been different, would the overall negative reaction (in some corners – we are taking, afterall, of a pretty small portion of the population that (a) was favorably disposed to Obama before the Wright tapes, and is (b) not favorably disposed now) have been any less? I don’t think so.

Which really gets to the underlying problem IMO. Independently of what peopel think are the right solutions to the problem of race in America, I think that McWhorter is correct – one thing that this episode has shown is the appalling ignorance in much of white America as to the realities of the black experience in America. And a less PC culture wouldn’t change that fact.

It is sad, and it’s doubly sad that it does not seem likely to get any better,