Arguably the panel I’m watching now, “Race and Politics in America: Where Are We in 2008?” with Richard Thompson Ford, Shelby Steele, Charles Kamasaki, and Ta-Nehisi Coates suffers from the opposite problem from the “Who Speaks for Islam?” panel — all four participants are nonwhite. Surely white people have something to say about this. On the other hand, maybe you can actually get a broader range of views on an all-black panel, I have a hard time imagining a white person saying what Shelby Steele just said.
Meanwhile, Richard Thompson Ford is speaking now and reminding me that I liked his book The Race Card and never blogged about it.
UPDATE: Here’s video of Shelby Steele being provocative yesterday.
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