Dean "won't apologize for remark at black caucus meeting'' (UPDATED)

Another grab from the Where's Howard site on Dean's comments: "Let's come right out and say it - anyone who's not black is perfectly capable of racial insensitivity, or saying the wrong thing. We have a myth in our minds of Bill Clinton, the "Black President," but when the problem is really that we are still white, black, red and yellow, and whites are still basically in charge, what we need are black and white leaders who can be honest about their biases - a subject that Howard Dean has spoken on many times in the past. It's a completely different kind of consciousness about race than the Bill Clinton model, where cultural ease greases the mechanism of justice. What we have here is a very white guy who is very curious about people who are not like him. Curiosity doesn't always defend against misunderstandings, however. Racial insensitivity, hurts and unintended slights are everywhere; but racism is the systematic enshrinement of racial and social insensitivity that already exists. In that sense, it's appalling that Republicans have the gall to insinuate that Dean is racist, when they are the ones who have manipulated everyone's racial insensitivities - whether tiny or large - into the kind of institutionalized racism that they defend."