Obama and the race row

That race relations continues to be America’s most intractable social problem was brought to the surface again this week.

According to the BBC:

‘“There is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.”

That was how US President Barack Obama put the arrest of the black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr into context.

His comments - in particular his description of the arresting officer’s actions as “stupid” - have attracted criticism in conservative circles, forcing him to make a surprise appearance at the daily White House press briefing in an attempt to calm the situation.

But for many in America, Mr Obama’s evocation of the country’s history of racial oppression will have great resonance.’

What has been inretersting, though hardly surprising, is how the US news and talk shows have evenly split on this, with right wing shows such as Fox siding with the police force and immediately crticising Obama, and other shows such as msnbc allowing sympathetic airings of relatively high profile policiticians and journalists as they recount similar experiences. This is not to say that the hosts and editors share the views broadcast on thier shows, but it still reveals a divided of sorts, even if it is among the viewers, of two sides who appear unwilling to concede to different points of view.