One Final Word On Skip Gates vs Cambridge.

Days like today prove why black blogs are so important, and why it's a shame that no other form of black media on a large scale exists. We had a spirited, diverse, sometimes contentious debate about what happened, and whether or not Gates was right or wrong. Everyone was respectful of the opinions of others. This is how the world as a whole should work. A lot more stuff would get done if it did.

One thing I think we can all agree upon is that none of us knows how we'd respond if placed in an identical situation. A recent poll showed that you guys pretty much agreed with this statement.

Personally, I'm glad that Gates lived to tell his story, and that this situation, regardless of how you view it, shows that this idealistic "post-racial" America many foolishly believed would arrive January 20th is little more than a media-manufactured pipe dream. If folks of all colors were able to speak as openly, and candidly as we do here all the time, something tells me we'd all be far better off. For that, I thank the dozens of members of AverageNation™ who weighed in on this issue today.

BTW, if you happen to decide to catch CNN's Black In America 2 tonight, you can join me and my compadres from The Retort for a live blog/chat, beginning at 9pm. Just click here to join the convo.

Regards,

AB