Imagine writing an article whose main premise is:
The first year of Obama's presidency has brought the country face to face with troubling racial schisms just as often as it has promoted racial understanding.
... and somehow managing to omit any mention of racist attacks against the President over the past year. Yet the Washington Post managed to do just that.
The article mentions Harry Reid. It brings up the President saying the police acted "stupidly" when they arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr. It notes that Obama "mostly declined to engage in the racial analyses that have come with his historic presidency," which apparently means that he "fails to take the country to more meaningful discussion about race."
And what's missing from this look at race relations under President Obama? Elected Republican officials questioning the President's citizenship, accusations from a T.V. host that he has "a deep seated hatred for white people" a major newspaper depicting him as a monkey, GOP party members sending out photoshopped images portraying him as a witch doctor or on food stamps surrounded by watermelons, or the vile racism displayed at the teabagger rallies. And that's just scratching the surface.
Apparently those kind of things don't rise to the level of "troubling racial schisms."
And while we do learn that the Obama presidency "has ignited a surge of optimism among African Americans as they assess race relations and their prospects for the future," we also find out that:
... Obama is not immune from some stubborn racial attitudes. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in November, research participants were shown three photos of Obama -- one in which his skin tone was darkened, one in which it was lightened and one in which it was unaltered. Participants were then asked to rate how well each photo represented who Obama "really is."
Those who shared political affiliation with the president tended to think the lightened photos were more representative. People who did not share his political views chose the darkened photos.
One wonders which picture the Washington Post would choose ...