To the Editor:

Barack Obama’s speech on race was the most honest appraisal of race relations in this country that I’ve heard any politician, black or white, give.

The fact that Mr. Obama is black makes it that much more risky for him—and that much more courageous. He has helped us find a way to raise the level of dialogue about race to something that attempts to find common ground, not by dismissing or ignoring our past, but by insisting we not stop there.

Mr. Obama makes me feel hopeful, not just because of what I believe he can do, but also because of what he inspires the rest of us to do.

Kathy Roberson
Middlesex, N.J., March 19, 2008

Note from KBJ: How is Obama black? Once again, he has a white mother and a black father. He is half white and half black. He is as much white as he is black. Does the letter writer endorse the one-drop rule? By the way, I thought there weren’t any races.