Reid "didn't say anything many Americans -- especially us Negroes -- don't already know"

By GottaLaff

Sandy Banks, a regular contributor to the L.A. Times, wrote about her feelings regarding the Harry Reid "Negro" remarks:

Harry Reid doesn't owe me an apology.

Sure, it was a little odd to see the term "Negro" used outside of a history class or documentary. Sounds like Reid is stuck in the last century.

But the Senate majority leader didn't say anything many Americans -- especially us Negroes -- don't already know.

If you're black, it is easier in this country to be light-skinned. [...]

Obama came by his light skin and dialectical flexibility differently -- as a biracial, bicultural son. But he's a political beneficiary of our color-conscious society; to pretend otherwise is disingenuous.

Reid was stating a fact, however indelicate and impolitic.

Original post about Reid's apology here. Follow-up saying he's not going anywhere here.

But I don't know why I should be offended.

If anyone is insulted, it should be whites -- whom Reid accused implicitly of being willing to vote for a black man only if he talks like them and is not too black.

I think the next apology ought to come from Michael Steele -- the light-skinned, dialectically flexible African American head of the Republican National Committee. [...]

Either Steele is playing politics with a combustible case, or he thinks Americans are so incapable of thinking intelligently about race that we can't tell the difference between Lott and Reid.

Now that offends me.

Please read the whole thing here.

Reid's talking points, intended to blunt fallout here.