From the website of the (very conservatve) Daily Telegraph Barack Obama, Joe Wilson & race:

..".why discussing race is so difficult: it is impossible to say that some people are/may be racist without conservatives jumping up and down and claiming that the same applies to everyone in the group under discussion (in this case Obama's protesting opponents).

Expat says: "Mr. Spillius' underlying message is clear. If you protest ANYTHING Obama proposes, it's not because you question the policy, it's because cannot get beyond the fact that the President of the United States is black."

That is not what I am saying. My "underlying message" is that a minority of people have trouble accepting a black president; that racism exists endures in the South; that the questioning of Obama's legitimacy as president and the unhinged hostility - not to mention dubious placards - shown by some protestors is rooted in those factors. That, in turn, de-legitimises what that minority has to say. It does not detract from the genuine anger and bewilderment at the president's big government agenda - but let's save that argument for another day. This seems irredeemably uncontroversial to me.