Deeply embarassesd? My actions today is what I am, not the actions of my forefathers. The only racism I see today is the racism directed at me. Dr. Martin Luther King would be embarrassed by some and proud of others.

I do not apologize for being white. White is just a color, not a person.

You know, the more I think I about this, and I re-read the article... the more I must raise my hand and admit that while I am not a racist, I am a culturist. I seek those that have values and beliefs that I can tolerate. And that is saying a lot as I can tolerate much! LOL. Like minded people have always congregated. There is nothing wrong with that. It is called harmony. I would proudly have had Martin Luther King, and many of my black friends as my neighbors. Because our ideas are similar.

For example from the article: "At my first CARW meeting, I shared a story from when I lived in the Central District. Driving the narrow streets, I'd notice that young black men would sometimes walk in the middle of the street and refuse to move for cars. They'd downright lope, slow like the South, where African American families coming to work at Boeing in the 1950s hailed from when they moved to this neighborhood—the only area of the city where they were allowed to live until the middle 1960s. To me, this loping was a form of historical communication, intentional or not: This is our street."

But in your anaylsis he says we are trying to reassert priviledge..... really? Get a clue, it is rude behavior, but something I see in often within that culture of attitude. You say: "Rather than thoughtfully discussing race," he writes, "Americans love to reduce racial politics to feelings and etiquette. It's the personal and dramatic aspects of race that obsess us, not the deeply rooted and currently active political inequalities. That's our predicament: Racial debate, in public and private, is trapped in the sinkhole of therapeutics." Damn skippy, I call it about feelings and etiquette. We are supposed to be color blind and basing our perception and reactions on others reactions. If you can’t respect me enough to obey the law, by not jaywalking, I can honk my horn. The only reason from my perspective is not about political inequalities, but about plain disrespect. Martin Luther King was listened to, because he was respected. If you notice, not many whites got behind Malcom X.

But I did like this part of it: "Based on statistics that show that racial minorities in Seattle are still less likely than whites to hold diplomas and college degrees, the RSJI worked to remove unnecessary degree requirements from city jobs, which earned the RSJI a mocking on the local Fox News (a sign you're doing a good job). " Unnecessary being the operative word. At first read, I thought, oh great they dumbed down the requirements just to promote someone of a specific race, then I re-read and saw the word unnecessary. This helps individuals of socio-economic status, not race. Race is not the issue, people without diplomas and college degrees are. But they choose to try and "show" they are doing something for the blacks... grrr, it is like the politicians that come in every 2, 4 or 8 years and change regulations on something that is working, just to prove they are "doing something". I call it "resume building". Here it is a good thing, but someone decided to call it in the name of recognizing racism, that is not good.

But I do not close my mind, I listen when someone says something is racist. But I can’t be responsible for how someone else’s perception is other than to state my side. So I raise my hand to being a culturist. But I do not apologize for it. Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are. Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.