George Will Is Correct!

By now, everyone knows of the latest foot Harry Reid has placed firmly into his mouth, as quoted in a new book, Game Change, by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann.

They report that Reid observed at the outset of the 2008 campaign for President, that Obama could be successful due in part to him being a "light-skinned African-American" and could speak without a "negro dialect."

Now, granted this is no longer an acceptable way to speak, we should keep in mind that this is an evaluative critique -- This language = not good but bad, undesirable, nasty. Note that it's not racist speech; it's tasteless speech. Racist speech would include something to the effect that Obama SHOULD OR SHOULD NOT be successful because he was an African-America.

There were no "shoulds" in Reid's comment; there were only "is-es." He was making a factual assertion, not an evaluative judgment.

He was making a truth claim. [By the way, Obama himself, agreed with him! Racial factors DID have an effect in the elections...duh....!]

So...he was doing so using "vile" speech (presumably "negro dialect" and "light-skinned") but that does not affect the truth quality of what he alleged.

I believe this was indeed the point George Will was making on This Week, this week!

And, by the way, as Robert Reich said on the program -- speaking about race is NOT necessarily racist.