One of the jobs in the legal system is making phone calls and sending letters to test for systematic illegal discriminatory actions. The two common variations on otherwise identical interactions are accent and name. The people who speak with the cadence and accent of Sharpton, will be rejected, even if the speaker is white, but when the same speaker speaks like a typical Midwesterner, he will be warmly accepted. And then when the voice that is warmly accepted uses names like Bill, Fred, and Barry, they get that same warm welcome, but when the names are Hussein or Barack or Mohommad, then the warmth turns to hostility.

And it is that latter aspect that is being invoked in the current presidential season. If you don't get it that Obama is black, let's make sure you get it and become afraid by emphasizing that it's Saddam Hussein Obama.

Racism is alive and well, rather proudly displaced of late by a lot of conservatives.