I consider myself a fairly typical, albeit progressive, white person. Well, I can't be totally objective about the fairly typical, or progressive parts, but I'm sure I'm a white person. I know what Obama's talking about. I've lived in a racially mixed neighborhood for the passed twenty years. When I moved here I was hyper-aware of race. I reacted when I realized I was the only white person in the supermarket; I reacted when I'd be walking my dog at night and a black person would come down the sidewalk, or worse yet, be walking behind me. it took a long time for me to realize I was safe; it took a long time to understand the difference between race and class; and I still react when a group of black kids in all their sagging and bagging splendor are coming toward me. I realize I'd react differently if they were white kids. Racial fear is bred into white people, and it's reenforced by the media - black and white media (gangsta rap, for instance.) It takes years of conscious effort to reprogram yourself into a more human stance. These anchor people speaking from their positions of privilege with, I'll bet, little or no contact in any community but white privilege are a joke and an insult. What's worse, they're race-baiters hiding behind anchor desks. They need to get lives that stretch their lives.