The sport of politics. The politics of sport.

In honor of the racially-charged dynamics of the Democratic presidential primary, I offer this series of excerpts from my book, “Democrats in the Red Zone: an Independent voter’s take on the game of political perception.” I hope people will feel inspired to comment as we all consider the challenges facing the Democratic Party in general, and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in particular, when it comes to the political impact of race-based perceptions in America.

The excerpts are as follows:

Race, especially the perceptions whites and blacks have of each other, may be the hardest part of the Democratic Party’s overall game plan to manage. As I see it, there are three sides to the racial equation that diminish the Democratic Party’s chances for success: Democrats haven’t convinced enough traditionalist whites they should be concerned about racism; Democrats have failed to appreciate that many racial and ethnic minorities, including some blacks, are more socially conservative than they’re given credit for; and not enough blacks have taken responsibility for the failure of their broader community to adapt and integrate into mainstream culture as Americans first and foremost. (By mainstream culture, I’m not referring to the entertainment and sports industries, where blacks have achieved the kind of social belonging that comes with success. I’m referring to the social values culture that plays itself out off-camera in American neighborhoods every day.)

More often than not, white-black relations represent an uneasy truce, not unity. The Democratic Party needs to confront that reality if it wants to strengthen and expand its base. Whites who are willing to acknowledge their lack of understanding of the black experience need to be more visible in the national dialogue. But blacks need to be willing to have that dialogue and stop lapsing into the role of automatic victim as a way to avoid acknowledging their part in interracial dysfunction. What is lacking more than anything, on both sides, is honesty.

It’s important for each of us to look at our own interactions at the local level if we want to emerge from our national dysfunction on race. Many whites have black friends, lovers and professional acquaintances. But others have had their overtures of friendship toward blacks rejected. Blacks often treat whites as if we owe them our trust. Yet many feel little obligation to treat us with respect, much less kindness. This is a political problem.

Unfortunately, sympathy for the black cause seems to have diminished, even among integrationist whites, since civil rights activists forced America to develop a national conscience on race. And while white resistance to racial equality continues to be a roadblock to progress in many regions, blacks are also responsible for creating their own obstacles. What few people are willing to say out loud is this: a lot of black people have an attitude problem, and it’s making them weaker, not stronger.

White people are the voting majority, so even if blacks can’t stand the idea, white people’s opinions matter. But a lot of fair-minded whites are frustrated. Slavery has been over for a long time, we say to ourselves. Blacks have the same constitutional rights we have. The government has made it possible for them to have greater access to educational and employment opportunities. They even benefit from affirmative action, with educational and job slots set aside for them — opportunities that aren’t available to us because we’re white.

… The face that has the greatest impact on white voters’ perception of blacks is a low-income, undereducated, primarily urban face. Most importantly for the Democratic Party, that black America is seen as an example of how Democrats tolerate cultural attitudes and behaviors that are antithetical to mainstream values.

In her book “Uncle Sam’s Plantation: How big government enslaved America’s poor and what we can do about it,” black conservative Star Parker describes those mainstream, or “bedrock,” values (which she calls “virtues”) as self-reliance, a positive attitude, loyalty, honesty and a respect for moral principles. Parker condemns what she calls liberal “social engineers” for destroying the black family through anti-poverty programs.

Here’s the problem for Democrats as I see it: while on paper they are in favor of helping poor black people, they also seem to accept the cycles of counterproductive behavior in poor black communities … Some argue, with increasing validity, that such inner-city living was made possible by the wishful “Great Society” programs that were part of Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” The perception seems to have grown in recent years that Johnson’s domestic war ultimately hindered blacks from moving out of poverty, and may have actually kept people stuck in the ghetto. (Strangely, I hear very little about the impact of Ronald Reagan’s policies and politics on black America, where I suspect much of the damage was done. This may be because so many whites worship Reagan’s memory and will jump down the throat of anyone who has something negative to say about him. I still don’t think that should keep Democrats from trying to make the case for the cynicism and essential immorality of some of Reagan’s domestic policies.)

Star Parker’s take on the well-meaning white liberalism that was supposed to save black America is as follows: “This kind of compassion … does not take human nature into account and is therefore ignorant of the most volatile part of the equation: uninformed compassion often hurts more than it helps.” The conflict between Johnson’s vision and Parker’s reality check points to the nature of the conflict between liberals and conservatives on social issues, especially as they relate to race. Liberals believe people will do the right thing if you offer them support (generally financial), while conservatives believe that the ability to do the right thing is taught by the imposition of strict parameters (generally moral). I’d like to know who thinks Democrats are winning the argument.

Whites may be impatient with the perpetual black demands for equality and justice, but if they want to be honest about racial politics they must also be willing to look at reality. The impact of racism on blacks is like Chinese water torture, consisting of many small drops of denigration that add up to one big, uphill battle just to feel equal. For example, I once witnessed a well-dressed black female friend followed around a department store by a young white salesgirl who had apparently been advised to keep an eye on black customers in case they might steal something. Plenty of black men — even professionals dressed in suits — are used to white people crossing the street when they walk toward them. How many whites know how it feels for the color of their skin to make them an eternal suspect in the eyes of their fellows? The answer: None. So we need to show particular respect for those who deal with that reality every day in the “land of the free.”

The Davis assault [in New Orleans] had one highly publicized precedent. In March 1991, a group of cops from the Los Angeles Police Department brutally “contained” a black man named Rodney King. That incident led to the infamous L.A. riots, which helped further the idea that blacks can’t control their emotional natures. How could having an emotional nature be considered a bad thing? If it’s in the form of nationally broadcast rage and destruction of property — the assets of a community — it creates two primary perceptions about the people involved: they can’t be trusted to behave like adults, because they’re likely to throw a tantrum if something upsets them; and they don’t respect their own community’s businesses and individual property, which suggests they’re all too willing to lay waste to what others have built. Such judgments are extremely harmful to the image of blacks within America’s white-dominated culture. They are also a perception setup, because the behavior that leads to those judgments is often a response to injuries inflicted on blacks by whites.

The issue of how black America is portrayed by the press comes up regularly on black talk radio and blogs. Many blacks feel that, despite the advances of the civil rights movement, the perception cards are still stacked against them — and they’re still right. Negative media portrayals of black people work in favor of a Republican Party whose constituency is primarily white and socially conservative; and I believe Republicans rely on those images to reinforce their covertly segregationist agenda.

… Negative representations of whites are few and far between. This is probably because most of the daily local news is recorded in urban areas where black crime is visible rather than in majority-white, rural areas. One of the most insidious problems in rural white America is the drug culture associated with methamphetamine, or “meth,” which fosters a lifestyle of addiction and violence that mirrors that of crack cocaine. But while the meth phenomenon has begun to appear on the news radar, it hasn’t achieved anywhere near equal billing with the coverage of drug use and drug-related criminality among blacks.

After all the American history of innocent blacks who had met violent ends at the hands of whites … Simpson’s acquittal was a racial day of reckoning. It was a rejection of white society’s presumption that justice would always tip in its favor, regardless of the facts on the ground. In their general jubilation over the verdict, I think what blacks were actually celebrating was the knowledge that whites were finally experiencing how it felt to have the cards — in this case, a majority-black jury — stacked against them. “Now you know what it feels like,” blacks screamed with elation, as they reveled in the karmic confirmation that “what goes around, comes around.” But the tragedy for the people who openly celebrated Simpson’s acquittal was this: they knew they were being watched by the rest of America, especially the white voting majority, and they didn’t care. As the video and audio tape rolled, they acted out their self-justified sense of vengeance before the media’s unrelenting spotlight. This allowed the voting majority to come up with its own verdict: that blacks were just as willing as whites to put racial identification with a defendant above justice. In that one cultural moment, blacks relinquished their automatic right to be deferred to as a people victimized by racism. Somewhere in America, I’m sure white racists were celebrating, too.

The unhappy knowledge that racism is an equal opportunity state of mind has probably made it easier for whites to detach themselves from the kind of sympathy for blacks that is based primarily on racial guilt. This means black leaders can’t milk white guilt the way they used to, and it puts added pressure on blacks to address their own racism. Individuals of conscience regardless of race are the key to diminishing the power of racist, even tribalist, thinking … To gain the confidence of white voters … and therefore to actually help black Americans — Democrats must have the moral courage to take the issue of black marginalization out of its context of race victimization and address it as a cultural dilemma requiring changes in the black mindset. They must also take a more creative approach to policymaking as it relates to the links between black poverty, black culture and the inability of many black children to succeed in school. That will mean holding black parents and leaders more accountable.

On today’s political perception field, Democrats can’t count on white voters to have automatic sympathy for black people based on historical injustices. There’s just too much water under the bridge, and too much awareness that America’s problem with race is a cultural two-way street.

In my view, the best hope for blacks to achieve socioeconomic power and political respect is to commit themselves to philosophical integration with non-blacks — dedicating themselves to the greater, not just the black, good. This means aligning themselves with people and causes based not on racial loyalty but on positive, universally shared values … The values divide — the perception among voters that some people hold more mainstream values than others — exists within black culture itself. Many blacks understand that black values need to at least look like they’re aligned with mainstream values, if for no other reason than ensuring the social and political survival of blacks themselves. Yet those people are often accused by other blacks of being “Uncle Toms” who kowtow to whites.

Low-income blacks somehow didn’t get the memo on what was expected of them, according to Cosby, who suggested that too many black parents weren’t raising their kids right. Pointing to the fear among black people of having their “dirty laundry” exposed to the prying eyes of whites, Cosby informed his audiences that black lower-class children were their dirty laundry and that it was pointless to try and hide it from anyone … “There’s a time when we have to turn around the mirror and look at ourselves,” Cosby told NPR, adding that self-empowerment is linked to education. Echoing remarks by Barack Obama at the 2004 Democratic Convention, Cosby noted with disgust that black children who studied were often accused of “acting white.” (The counterproductive mindset of people who equate education with whiteness was also apparent when rumors circulated during the 2008 presidential campaign pre-season that Obama himself wasn’t “black enough” for some people.)

The most unproductive aspect of the whole Cosby flap for blacks is this: when you try to hide your problems from other people, it’s called “denial.” Denial doesn’t make your problems go away; it just makes you look foolish for not confronting them. Ultimately, it’s self-defeating to condemn individuals from your own racial group who are being progressive by pointing out what needs to change … It might be sobering for Cosby’s critics to realize that celebrities speaking from the comfort of their own thrones aren’t the only ones who think self-defeating black attitudes are getting old. In a letter to the Washington City Paper, one D.C. resident observed that too many blacks “equate accomplishment and the desire to be comfortable with ‘acting white’ or ‘putting on airs.’” Some blacks are like “crabs who know we are destined to be cooked” and try to prevent others from escaping the bucket. The woes of the black community are “often — usually — our own,” she said.

Even if they don’t want to admit it out loud, I think more black voters agree with Cosby than don’t. In fact, I’ve heard increasing frustration from working-, middle- and upper-class blacks about the attitudes and behavior of their low-rent brethren — frustration that Democrats need to pay attention to. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, the black vote has started to fragment because race alone can’t hold it together.

Before Cosby issued his call to conscience, no prominent black leader since the days of Martin Luther King “had dared to stand apart from the civil rights groupthink and ask ‘Where do we go from here?’” says Juan Williams. “Where are the black leaders who are willing to stand tall and say that any black man who wants to be a success has to speak proper English?” Williams asks. “Isn’t that obvious?”

Yet some of those leaders continue to feed the fires of self-justified separatism, which many of their constituents continue to believe makes sense. From listening to the speechifiers at the “Millions More March” in October 2005, I concluded that black leaders on the Left had learned little about the perception factor in black political impotence.