If there's one thing that demonstrates a need for a national dialogue on race in American society and politics it is our national dialogue on race.  For example, check out the exchange between Pat Buchanan and Prof. Dyson on Hardball.

Awkward, indeed.  Here in Louisiana, some people still run around with Confederate or Rebel flags in the university's colors on game day.  These same folks get upset or offended that some other people are offended by the flag.  Some folks that like the flag go so far as to suggest that if you find the flag offensive, then you do not understand basic history.  If you did, they claim, you'd realize that there's nothing rascist about the flag at all.  It's just a sign of southern pride, they say.  Sometimes when I run into one of these people, I suggest that if they knew how to avoid the genetic fallacy and took into account the entire history of the flag and southern pride, they'd realize that it's not unreasonable for some people to associate the flag with rascism and to be offended by it.  And, that if they asked themselves "What would Jesus do?" and followed the main principle of Christian morality, then they'd probably realize that pride is one of the deadly sins, and think twice about showing their southern pride with Confederate flag.  If that does not work to convince them they're in their wrong, then you might have to call them a "coonass."  And, then they get "offended."