*I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up... live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

A while ago-back when the hype about a young senator from Illinois was just starting and well before nominees were announced for the race for the White House-and full of excited he said, "I hope Obama runs for president."

My knee-jerk reaction was, "It'll never happen."

"Why?" he asked.

Simple question, but I didn't have a simple answer. I couldn't say, "Because America's too racist still," to this white, on the far side of middle-age, police officer. He was living proof that America is changing.

Race and racism in America are complicated subjects. The nation has come a long way since slaves were declared 3/5s human and not entitled to any rights. The slaves were freed (technically) in 1863. Black men were given the right to vote in 1865 (on paper only), and blacks received the right to vote (really) in 1965. So racism ended in 1965-in the imaginations of those who don't want to talk about, and hopefully solve, the issues of race that we still have.

In looking for documented cases of racism for this Hub, I came up stories about the First Alabama Bank of Mobile Alabama. Federal officials investigated the disproportionately few minorities hired for the bank's entry level teller positions. The investigation found that there were many African American applicants, and they were as qualified as the white applicants. This, in and of itself, doesn't prove racism. Proof came in the form of notes taken by the (former) personnel officer during the interviews. For instance, the notes for a white woman who was hired read: "an attractive white female, blond hair, blue eyes, teller-type appearance." The notes for a black woman who was not hired read: "very large lips and hips, overweight, dark skin, black girl, he hair is longer than most, appearance is not good enough to meet the public."

The stories appeared on sites like A Healthy Me!, though, and I was looking for verified news sources. I finally went straight to the horse's mouth and checked out the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Before scrolling far in their achieves to see if I could find this case, I was struck by the 21 discrimination settlements posted for just this first half of 2008. Twenty-one settlements for people (usually group cases) of discrimination based on sex, age, and race with about 13 of those being race specific. And that doesn't reflect on the cases that have not been settled. It staggers the mind to imagine all those that probably aren't even reported.

The fact that a bi-racial man has a serious chance to become the next president of the United States shows that we have grown by leaps and bounds since Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington. Yet, we can clearly see that there is still more to be done.

*The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

We have always needed to work through issues of racism together. The problem is in finding a way to talk about it that doesn't make it worse rather than better. In March, Obama came under fire for words made by his (now former) pastor: "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

The man certainly knows how to preach to the choir while making everyone else close their minds to his message! And it's sad, too, since his message does have some merit. The drugs (and guns for that matter) circulating through poor neighborhoods aren't manufactured there; they come from somewhere. The poverty that plagues so many in the black community comes from somewhere-it has a history dating back to slavery that has never been properly addressed. But Wright's comments make many white people say, "Whoa! I did nothing to you, and if you hate the country to much, get out!" They make many black people say, "Whoa! America isn't perfect, but it's our home. If you hate it so much, get out!"

End of conversation.

And the conversation is tiring, regardless of how necessary it is. When I was a very young girl, my parents worked hard to move out of our apartment and buy a house in a quiet neighborhood with a good school. As it happened, it was an Irish Catholic neighborhood and I learned about racism very early on in my life. Some thirty odd years later, I don't have enough time in my day to convince some bigot that I am not what his stereotypes say I am.

I can speak for at least one Asian friend of mine in saying she is not bad at driving, she is not particularly better at math than the next person, and no matter how big you smile when you say, "You look like such a pretty little China doll!" is not a compliment. And having to say it over and over gets old.

There are plenty of poor white citizens who would beg to differ about receiving benefits from white privilege. There are a lot of middle-class white Americans who are not racist and are tired of having to say that.

People of every color and background can add their own bit to this. We could all demand of one another, "Why don't you get this yet?" And we are damned tired of the need to have this conversation. But if we're going to come together as one nation, if we're going to heal all the damage of our past, if we're every really going to understand one another, and if we want to be able to move into the future, we need to talk about it.

*Quotes from the MLK Jr. "I Have a Dream" speech