Larry Elder: "OK, Sen. Obama, Let's Have the Race 'Talk'"

The libertarian Republican commentator opines: "In his Big Speech defending his 20-year membership in a church headed by a racist, anti-Semitic, sexist, conspiracy-believing pastor, Democratic candidate Barack Obama says America needs a frank 'talk' about race. For crying out loud, we talk incessantly about race! Pick up a newspaper -- any newspaper -- or turn on cable news and wait a few minutes. Race -- usually something about how blacks feel, how blacks think, how blacks and whites see things differently, yada, blah, etc. -- comes up....Obama's pastor, Jeremiah Wright, similarly seems downright joyful in attacking America, blaming the government for AIDS and drugs, and attributing the Islamofascist attacks of 9/11 to America's racism. Wright believes that, in the year 2008, it remains hard out there for a black guy. So, too, do many members of the media, who called Obama's speech a 'refreshing' call for a dialogue to deal with the 'chasm' and 'divide' between America's blacks and whites. But consider the 'talk' about race [and hope for progress for blacks] by former slave turned educator/author Booker T. Washington in his book 'Up From Slavery' -- written in 1901, a mere three and a half decades after the end of slavery..."

He adds: "American blacks live in a post-slavery, post-Jim Crow world, with a growing, thriving black middle class. We live in a country where, for the most part, hard work, focus, ability and some luck determine success. Why, then, the continued anger, negativity, and finger-pointing, in a country to which much of the world -- if it could -- would happily relocate? So, let that talk begin."