Race and the nagging voice

Here are some more thoughts related to Obama and his now famous speech on race. A few people have claimed that Obama wouldn't be where he is now if he wasn't black. I like exercises that turn the thought upside down. Would Bush be where he is now if he wasn't white? That bit is obvious, but consider this: Bush likes to claim he is a self-made man. But that denies

the significant advantages he’s gained from his family’s wealth and connections (or, for that matter, the advantages that his father and grandfather enjoyed as a result of the Bush/Walker family fortune). ... [Would] George W. Bush be where he is, had he been born to a family without the Bush family’s wealth and political power, with only his innate talents, skills, and intelligence to rely on?

For the rest of us there is a nagging voice we desperately want to ignore. For the whites it is a fear that I didn't earn what I have. It is mine only because of the position of my birth, of my family's legacy and it might disappear if we welcome blacks into society as equals. For blacks it is a fear that all those implications of inferiority might be true. Because we are so desperate to ignore this voice we don't want to discuss race.