Republican pundit and Fox News regular Charles Krauthammer made an excellent point earlier this week when he pointed out that the constant call from the left for us to have a “conversation on race” is disingenuous… because we are already in the midst of a conversation on race!

Charles Krauthammer: I heard in your earlier segment people where were saying to you we need to have a conversation about race and whenever you hear that, you say to them, well, we are having one right now. What is it that we ought to be talking about that we’re not? And they get vague. You know, we have to have a conversation where we listen to each other. I have no idea what that means. 

We’ve been having one for 50 years in this country. You could argue 150. You could argue the entire history of the republic. If there’s been one subject that’s been a constant in the national discourse, it’s been race. The idea that we haven’t discussed it enough is preposterous. What is usually implied is that whites ought to be confessing their racism and that should be the starting point. I refuse to accept that premise.

I think if you want to have an honest argument, let’s talk about honest discussion, argument, whatever, let’s talk about what’s going on and what can be done. And for example, let’s look at the case that has sparked the new demand for a conversation. The Staten Island event where the man was killed by the police in apparently what looked like a choke hold. Is there the slightest evidence anywhere that this had anything to do with race? And if the man involved had been Hispanic or white or Asian this would not have happened? There’s no evidence of that at all.

Indeed, I think his wife has spoken about that and said this wasn’t. And then all of a sudden it becomes, and I think here’s where the demagogues step in, it becomes a racial issue. The policemen who were shot were not white as defined by statistics or by the census department. One was Hispanic, the other was Asian-American. So this idea of imposing a black and white frame around this I think is the work of cynical demagogues who want to inflate this into a racial issue.

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