Good article, and a topic I've been thinking about a lot these last several years. The period of time surrounding the Obama years was a strange rethinking of race, race relations, and just how much or how little progress we've made over the decades, for me.

With Obama, I noticed a strange trend among the MSM. There was a tendency to place race in relation to reporting on events, his policies, and his very character. At first, it was expected. He was our first black president afterall. Gradually I realized, unexpectedly, just how much race still has an obvious presence.

I often wondered why race was even an importance at all. For the most part, Obama was like any other Democratic politician. He touted larger government ideals, and often viewed our country with a more cynical lens, all of which I find common with Democrats.

When Trump started to look more like he was going to be the Republican candidate, and then eventually the next president, I no longer was was questioning why race was an importance, I wanted to know how to stop it from becoming an even bigger problem.

• "Our fight against racism used to be planned, methodical and with purpose. If we felt wronged in a particular area, we targeted that area with logical measures for change. We were purposeful people with a particular end game that we felt would be satisfactory, but something went awry along the way."

The gradual recognition of race as being an issue we still have a ways to go with, has been inflated as an issue we've never moved past. For myself, I don't look at Obama and Trump as having this nefarious intention of splitting our country in two. There are many other complications that come to play in all this.

There's been this fight to eradicate racism in every crack and corner in our society. Much the same as a witch hunt, it can't possibly be achieved, it most likely will end up making us hate each other more, and to a degree it already has. I also find it to be a completely wrong angle to tackle problems like health, economy, policing, and education, as well as gridlocks progress that could be made in communities, as it usually ends up in a debate over whether racism is involved rather than actually fixing the problem.

This racial battle has been led by sensational journalists in the MSM whom I feel, on both sides, have only made things worse. What began as a mere recognition of issues we should head off and address, has gone in absolutely ridiculous directions of micro aggressions that are left up to the offended to define.

• "The utilization of weaponized racism is a weakness, not a strength and anyone that says otherwise does not have black America’s best interests in mind. Racism against white Americans solves nothing and makes us just as pathetic as the people we despised from our past. Racism is for the simpleton among us who is too shallow to look deeper into someone’s character before casting aspersions."

Agree. Currently the majority of the positive press has been standing beside groups like BLM who feel their means of demonizing white people justify their ends. Which is a method that can't possibly be sustained indefinitely. The rightfully demonized would be any group that promotes a racialized divisive message, and that can apply to all races.

I think back on my thoughts on the Obama years as far as where we need to go. I think a good start would be to not talk so much about race unless it is absolutely necessary in regards to politics especially. I've always believed we should never deny our past, but that also includes the good with the bad. Our lives are so much more complex than the color of our skin or the sex we were born with. Those are the most boring aspects of a person.

Soon, voices like yours will restore the respect between cultures we had begun to enjoy in the 70s and 80s.

An excellent piece...thanks for posting