Obama and the Politics of Race

During the many years that I lived in the United States, first as a university student, then as reporter for two Midwest newspapers and later as the Washington correspondent for the Star, I was always struck by the huge divide between blacks and whites.

As a Canadian from small-town Ontario, I was initially somewhat naive about the bigotry and anger shown by many whites, especially males, toward blacks. It didn't take long, though, to learn just how deep-rooted those feelings were.