[the_cat_kittles]

of the top of my head, ignoring stuff from this campaign (there are so many things there...):

he has settled suits for racial discrimination about not renting to minorities

he advocated the death penalty for the since exhonerated "central park 5" in a full page ad in the daily news

he was the leader of the "birther" movement against president obama.

[googlryas]

Re suits: As far as I know, he was never found guilty in any of those law suits. "Settling" is not an admission of guilt. It could just as easily be the cost/benefit of fighting the lawsuit is not worth it. The government has deep pockets after all.

Re central park 5: Yes, that was a huge blunder(as was that entire case for that matter). Is there any indication it was based on their race, and not the savagery of the crime they were accused of?

Re birther: What does that have to do with race? "American" isn't a race.

[joe5150]

It's an incredibly (and I mean dishonestly) generous view of birtherism to say it had nothing to do with Obama's race.

[googlryas]

This exact same question was raised with John McCain back in 2008, because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/may/12/...

Was that because of his race too?

I suspect we stopped hearing about McCain, and kept hearing about Obama, because Obama became president.

[joe5150]

Like I said, a generous suspicion. I can also suspect that had McCain been elected he would not have been dogged with insinuations about his citizenship, forced to proffer his birth certificate, referred to as a "Panamanian" by his detractors, etc. etc. for practically the duration of his first term.

[googlryas]

I agree that many racists are in the birther camp. I guess my point was that it wasn't only racists doing it.