Not to rain on anyone's Obama parade, but today's conversation on GRITtv is sobering. From Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith and Baratunde Thurston we hear how hard it is to reverse a message once it has been rolled out. From our "colorblindness" panel we hear how reluctant the Obama campaign has been thus far to consciously head off the racist onslaught that's doubtless coming.

Having said race will play no role -- how to combat racism? In 1996, as Kimberle Crenshaw points out, during Clinton's re-election campaign, the state of California was facing a trial-balloon anti-affirmative action initiative. Rather than address it head on, the Clinton campaign decided to ignore it. Initiative 209 passed, became a model for the Right and now Ward Connerly and his crew are using a similar initiative in several states, including Colorado, to eliminate affirmative action -- and swell conservative turnout this November.

Today on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington, there will be a lot of remembering of King's "I have a Dream" speech. But considering where this country stands, his words from later in his life are worth considering too. Here's King from 1967 :

"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo, we shall boldly challenge unjust mores...."

Also from King, "A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing, unconditional love for all men."

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