There’s a great line in the 1988 movie “Stand and Deliver”, spoken by an actor named Rif Hutton whose character’s name was Dr. Pearson from the Educational Testing Service. He and Andy Garcia (in a small but effective role) are called in to the high school where Jaime Escalante teaches because his Latino kids did ‘too well’ on the AP Calculus Exam. When teacher Escalante accuses the two of racism for their review of the results, Andy explodes with “Nobody has the right to call me a racist”. However, Dr. Pearson calmly explains that there are two kinds of discrimination:

Singling out an individual or group because of their race and Not Singling out an individual or group because of their race

Since I am an incurable optimist, I take these words to heart, and apply them to the situation with our current President, Barak Hussein Obama.

Even ten years ago, the likelihood of someone with that name being elected president would have made a great routine on Saturday Night Live. Driving home one summer night from the Atlanta airport in 1988, I listened on the radio to Reverend Jesse Jackson’s speech at that Democratic Convention. I was enthralled and saddened at the same time, as Reverend Jackson is a superb speaker. Unfortunately, he and we both knew he could never be elected president because he was “too black”. In 2008, I watched the tears roll down his face that night in Grant Park in Chicago when Obama was sharing his victory speech with the assembled, ecstatic throng. I wondered then: are those tears of joy for Barack, or tears of sadness for his own missed opportunity?

So in the midst of the Democratic convention, I want to share my optimism on the State of the Union with Respect to Race. My thesis is: yes, indeed, racism is alive & well in this country. But the fact that the electoral map in 2012 will look nearly identical to the map in 2004 when John Kerry was the candidate is actually somewhat heartening. Why? It gets back to the quote from Dr. Pearson. Obama would undoubtedly agree that no one has shielded him from criticism because he’s black. Last week’s Republican convention was rife with venom for the sitting president, but it was because of his performance, not his race. By the way, I say the electoral map looks nearly identical: the difference will likely be a win for Obama in Ohio and potentially Florida.

So rather than criticizing or making fun of Clint Eastwood, we should thank him for doing what he did with his empty chair. We’ve come a long way, babies!