"The Story of How the Left and the Right—and Their Typically-White Figureheads—Perceive the Politics of Race Is Nevertheless an Important One"

"Liberals do sometimes plow through the foggy barrier dividing chaste and racially galvanized conservatism. Sometimes it is the result of sloppiness or irrational exuberance. It might occasionally drift into outright racial McCarthyism. But frequently it's just difficult to determine where that barrier begins and ends.
"And thus, members of the liberal commentariat do on occasion incorrectly impute racial motives to individual conservatives and Republicans who support policies like these for the purest of reasons. When that happens, it is wrong. But it is also a much smaller sin than pretending one's own political coalition is racially innocent, when it clearly, empirically is not."


Brian Beutler in The New Republic reacts to Jonanthan Chait's cover story in New York on race and contemporary politics.