White House Opens Up on Race

In a break from the tone of the Obama campaign, members of the White House inner-circle are talking candidly about race. Eric Holder's "nation of cowards" remark caught the most attention, but Michelle Obama and  EPA chief Lisa Jackson—also the first African-American in her position—have moved the conversation forward as well, writes Krissah Thompson in the Washington Post. Whether the nation is ready to join in is another question.

Some think there's a danger in talking about the issue too much. "Better to have the president and his top African-American aides serve as role models and achieve the broader objective by indirection," said one political scientist. Others see a danger in ignoring it. "I think that the line is, 'We've elected the black president, and now we're post-racial and everybody should just shut up.' It's very dismissive," said the head of a think tank on race.
(More race relations stories.)