It is racism, and racist, at this stage of the proceeding, to continuously make these completely unnecessary observations about any of the candidate's "race" or ethnic heritage or color or whatever you want to call it: why bother to keep invoking something that is not only long known and obvious to everybody, but doesn't make any difference anyway?

Because it's racism asnd racist, that's why.

Illustration: Imagine for a moment that you're in College, and you're going home for the long weekend: your room-mate has nothing to do this weekend, nor any place to go... and rather than leave them there alone on campus, you invite them to be your guest, and your family's guest, for the long weekend back at your home: you walk into the house, and say "hey mom hey dad it's me home for the weekend and I brought my roomie and I'm sure you won't mind if we find room on the couch or wherever and here she or he is, come welcome him or her!"

And your mom says "hey love I missed you terribly and hi roomie any friend of our daughter or son is a daughter or son to us too and sure you're welcome and we can do better than the couch I'm sure!"

And your dad says"Hi... gee, I see that you're a different race or ethnic heritage or color or whatever, from us"

And you and your mom look mortified: but why leave a mess on the floor, when you can at least make the effort to clean it up: "you'll have to excuse my husband" your mom says... "he not only has such sharp eyes for the obvious, but he makes distinctions among people that don't really make a bit of difference anyway"

And you laugh, and say "that's my dad alright!", trying to keep it light.

But later on, at the dinner table, your dad does it again, and makes a completely unnecesarry comment as to your room-mate's race color or whatever: "so, what's it like being the race color or whatever that you are: it must be something out of the ordinary, I bet"

...and when he does it yet again: "I can't help but to want to comment more about how I see that you are a different race color whatever from me, and on how that means you are something different from the rest of us: let's talk more about things skin-deep and obvious to us all, as though they mattered and we just can't get over them and..."

You and your mom are furious!

Your mom snarls like a tigress at your dad, and the words seem to indicate that there's something out in the kitchen that needs attending to: and your dad knows this voice and what it means, and like a jack-out-of-the-box, he's out of his seat at the table, and out into the kitchen...

And your mom turns so sweet and placid and warm and still, like the eye of a hurricane having just relieved you of the tempest, and turns to your room-mate to say:

"Please forgive me and my husband and my son or daughter, and our Home, for my husband's behavior: while the idiot things he says might easily be thought of as racist, I assure you, that he is a good man: it is just that he is somewhat ignorant in these things, and sometimes just can't get past what's not important, what's not really a distinction in Human People, and what's so obvious and long acceptable, that it no longers matters to us, as we all have long seen, and we get it...

...and it's no real difference among Human People anyway, is it dear?"

And the dear she is speaking to, is both you and your room-mate: who now that you think of it, is like a Brother or Sister to you, never more than now, by way of what your mom just did and said.

And before you can say anything, your white roomate speaks up: "It's OK... I understand... it's alright: if it's racism or racist, it's mild compared to what it could be... I'd rather not keep having people draw me a different color than them" your white roomate says "but it's OK, I understand..."

"My dad does the same thing too... on the television even... maybe you've seen him do it, on Fox... my dad's sean hannity, and he does that same racist thing too, of unnecessarily prattling on about what the rest of us have long noticed and gotten over, and doesn't truly make any difference anyway"

Not to the eye... and not in the eye of the hurricane.

The surprise is NOT that the anti-black Negro Conservative Shelby Steele does NOT believe the lies and dissemblies that he himself wrote in his own book.

The surprise is that Steele is admitting to that fact on television, the BIGGER surprise is that he's admitting it on GOP-Fox Lies Channel, the BIGGEST surprise of all is that he's saying that to the right wing racist white supremacist ball of hate Liar Sean Hannity.