Ohio’s Muslim, Arab neighbors: Steven M. Dettelbach | cleveland.com

The Convert | This American Life. In 2006, a new convert showed up at a mosque in Orange County, California, eager to study the Koran and make new friends. But when he started acting odd and saying strange things, those friends got suspicious. To them, he was Farouk al-Aziz. But his real name was Craig Monteilh, and he was working undercover for the FBI.

“But make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America. (Applause.) By African American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender. (Laughter.) By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. (Applause.) By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God. (Applause.) By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights. (Applause.)” Full transcript – http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-to-the-NAACP-Centennial-Convention-07/16/2009/

Ta-Nehisi Coates has a piece at The Atlantic that got me thinking. For a white person to vote for Obama is racist. The one drop rule means that they are voting along racial lines. Normally I like Coates’ writing, and I agree with his general sentiment. However, it still seems like we are stuck in the same mode of racial thinking. Obama has one white parent and one black parent. Why is he still considered black? I know there is an element of self-identification involved, but as a society, we treat him as black because of the one-drop rule. Black…