the voices of the true right have always been there. the reality is that true conservatism has no boundries. it is color blind and it is consistant, which is why a true conservative can be for a black person or against him. it is always going to be based on what he believes and not on what he looks like. there is a long list of conservative blacks that i would have preferred over the last four presidents, even the rush limbaughs and the sean hannitys will have such a list, so for anyone to try and make any dissension for obama about race, is not being intellectually honest.

Pittsburgh's G-20 story: Take an expressway from town and disappear into desolate 'hoods and encounter the civilization of menace. Pittsburgh, a dual city! The glass wonder of PPG Place and/or the G-20 Summit is a faded memory. Here in the 'hood lives lie abandoned as far as the eye can see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEukcWW5dM0

That is: For the most part, African-American Pittsburgh seems to be invisible, not only to the public relations hucksters who tout Pittsburgh's successes, but we are equally invisible to the protesters.

Certainly, black Pittsburgh is as proud as anybody in that the black President we worked so hard to elect has selected Pittsburgh as the host of the G-20 Summit. We even enjoy the re-invention of Pittsburgh from a dirty, smoky steel-churning history to the bright, clean, green financial success that the business leaders and politicians boast about so loudly. Nobody is more proud of the Super Bowl winning African-American coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin. But none of that feel-good stuff erases the pain of the stubbornly high unemployment among African American young adults and the staggering dropout rate for young black males from the public school system.

There is a precedent in this nation about forcing truancy at least in the State of Virginia. I used to teach at the U.Va. and they didn't integrate the schools til 1972 was word in the community. Home-schooling is prevalent throughout Charlottesville VA and some attribute it to the following:

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown by mandating public-school desegregation, and Virginia state leaders responded with an official policy of Massive Resistance. When, on January 19, 1959, both a federal and a state court simultaneously ruled the state's actions unconstitutional, the Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors closed its public schools rather than integrate them. They stayed shuttered for five years. Another U.S. Supreme Court decision—Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward—finally forced the county's schools to reopen in 1964.

While white students quickly moved into Prince Edward Academy—a new private school supported by state-approved tuition grants and donations from ardent segregationists—black students were left without any educational facilities. Some local churches provided a rudimentary substitute for the local schools, and some black students attended classes in nearby counties or, with the aid of the Quaker-affiliated American Friends Service Committee, relocated. Most black students, however, and especially children who were too young to move away from home, were denied access to any formal education. Similarly, most black teachers lost their jobs, forcing many to leave the community.

I believe that the hysteria about the President's speech is based on racism. Yes, I know we blacks are always accused of using the "race card." After 68 years of being black in America, believe me I have had plenty of experience with America's racism and I recognize it when I see it and hear it.