[Company Man]

paradoxically, can reinforce some of the very anti-black biases it hopes to wipe out.

This can't be stated enough. I'm much more race-conscious now than I was in high school and college - and not in a good way.

[A_perfect_lady]

I am too. Whenever I get into a debate about race, I feel like blacks are waiting for me to declare "I'm not racist, I have black friends." But the thing is... I don't have black friends. Not anymore. I had a couple, briefly, but increasingly I am convinced that even my black co-workers whom I like and think well of just... deep down have a worldview that I cannot fathom. So I don't bother getting too buddy-buddy anymore. Because no matter how close you think they are, when Trayvon comes up, suddenly they don't care about anything but he was black so it was racism. They'll side with OJ, for pete's sake. I just can't get into any more of those 'friendships.'

[driftless2]

I'm much more race-conscious now than I was in high school and college - and not in a good way.

I think many ex liberal, white people (not necessarily you) are totally fed up. Years ago they backed all the right causes and efforts to help minorities and eliminate those barriers that were supposedly keeping black people down.

Now, after fifty years, they find out they're still nasty, white racists who want to keep black people down. These same white people just don't care anymore. They're tired of all the whining, complaining and excuses for failure and lawless behavior.