Let's just say that I "driving while black" really does happen and I've personally been surrounded by 5 police cars because there happened to be a black person in my car at the time (the black friend was the only person in the car taken aside and frisked). Further, it's difficult to interpret some of the examples in the original complaint letter as anything but racist but plenty of Freepers are ignoring or dismissing those complaints.
The best illustration of the problem I've ever seen was a nice car pulled over by the state police. Standing on the side of the road was a nicely dressed black couple and the police officer was inside the car searching it thoroughly. What one sees there will likely depend on one's race. Did the police officer have cause to search the car? I don't know for sure but I do know that white people tend to automatically assume the police officer has a legitimate reason for stopping the couple and searching their car while black people tend to assume it's a fishing expedition by the police officer to get something on an otherwise innocent black couple. And in making that assumption, each side has a bias that's inevitably wrong at least some of the time.
And telling me your non-white ethnicity is "Hispanic" is meaningless because "Hispanic" isn't a race.
We could also talk about the Tawana Brawley hoax. Or the Duke lacrosse hoax. Or OJ Simpson being acquitted by a mostly-black jury. Or the New Haven firefighters. Or Imus getting fired for making an anti-black joke, while blacks who have said far worse about whites suffer no consequences.
The point is, there are white racists and there are black racists. Back in the 50s, the former was more common. Now, the opposite is true.
As to Freeper attitudes towards the racist comments in the complaint letter, I think most of us are doing the right thing. We condemn the racist comments and say that Obama’s kids are off limits. Condemning the comments is enough - we don’t have to feel guilty about them unless we personally made them. Maybe you feel that Freepers are “dismissing” those complaints because not enough guilt is being expressed? I’m sincerely trying to understand where you’re coming from. What do you want Freepers to say?
Try to understand where I’m coming from, too. I had a McCain-Palin bumper sticker on my car before the election. I was REPEATEDLY accused of being a racist by Obama supporters, just for having that sticker.
Oh, and I know that Hispanic isn’t a race. That’s why I said “ethnicity.” “Race” and “ethnicity” are two different things. “Italian” is an ethnicity. “Jewish” can be a religion or an ethnicity. Neither is a race.