I believe we should hold a "conversation on race" in this country.....after John McCain is elected president.  If Obama becomes the Democratic nominee and loses to McCain in the general election, conditions will be perfect to hold just such a conversation.  Imagine what that would be like.  Half of America and most of Europe would initially be reconfirmed in their belief that we are an irredeemably racist society.  Then, on further examination of the election results, it would be shown that tens of millions of white Americans (almost half) actually voted for a black man to be their president.  They based their votes on his ideals, charisma and political beliefs.  For them, race was not a factor.  As expected, ninety percent of black Americans voted for the same candidate, confirming again that his appeal to this demographic is racially motivated.  Both groups of Obama voters, however, realized too late that their candidate's association with a black racist preacher for twenty years made the difference in this close election.  This, despite evidence that few Americans of any political persuasion believed Obama held such racist views himself.  A majority of voters simply could not reconcile his campaign rhetoric of change with the reality on the ground in his home community.  Was his previous attachment to Reverend Wright merely posturing for political acceptance among black voters?   Was that why they voted overwhelmingly for him?  How tragic that such a brilliant natural politician felt compelled years ago to enter public life via the plebian racist political culture of Southside Chicago.  It would seem in retrospect that racial politics, of his own making, cost him the election. 

And in that election, the contrast with McCain could not have been greater.  His supporters voted their conscience, rejecting the notion that doing so was racist, as some had implied.  They were never  concerned their candidate could be accused of racist affiliations, as  affectation was never part of his political persona.  His life was an open book, and they all knew his biography, just as the other side thought they knew their candidate's.  McCain's campaign portrayed him as the product of that most egalitarian of American institutions, the United States military.  He preached a philosophy of unifying the country around our common purpose, and downplayed our divisiveness.  His model for the ideal society:   United States soldiers and sailors.  They come together from all ethnic backgrounds and walks of life, put aside their differences and learn to live, fight and die side by side to protect all Americans.  He reminded us that he was not one of those whose life was scarred by the race and gender battles of the 60's, that he had survived that era politically unfettered and psychologically unscathed.  His only dalliance with Socialist dogma came courtesy of brutal torturers, inuring him for life against its seductive appeal, an appeal still common among academics.  Furthermore, voters for McCain were found to strongly believe that combating racism begins at home.  They could not understand why anyone would expose his young children to the lies of a racist demagogue.  They contrasted this with their candidate's evident pride in his adopted South Asian daughter, the one whose dark skin color led to the vilest of rumors being circulated during his first run for the presidency.  McCain's victory reassured his supporters that America had moved beyond that despicable racist episode in the 2000 primary.  And as a consequence, we now have a president who knows from personal experience the awfully destructive power of race-baiting in our society.    

So after John McCain wins the general election, let's have that conversation on race in America.  Perhaps black Americans will realize just how costly it is to them to have prominent black leaders such as Wright continue to espouse racist ideas about white people being the bane of their existence.  Perhaps they will look across that great racial divide, the one kept alive more than ever in their own communities, and realize the significance of tens of millions of white people from all regions of the country voting for a black man, despite his own past and continuing association with a racist.  Maybe they will start to emulate Mandela more than Mugabe.  And maybe, just maybe, black Americans will realize that chaining themselves to the Democratic Party, with its predilection for identity politics and its penchant for holding do-nothing conversations about race, is a losing proposition in presidential elections.  Even for a candidate as impressive as Barack Obama.     

Bring on that conversation.