President Obama may have alienated mixed-race voters when he checked off only the "black" box on his census form, wrote columnist Gregory Rodriguez in April: "For all the post-racial symbolism millions of Americans have projected onto the president, his political choices are at odds with emerging demographic trends."

But are demographic trends as persuasive as political strategies? To answer this question, Rodriguez interviewed San Francisco State University political scientist Robert C. Smith.

"Obama made the politically correct choice. […] If he had come to Chicago calling himself multiracial, he would have had no political career. And I think if he called himself multiracial now, black people would see it as a betrayal."

 Not that any of this may matter in 2012. In his Sunday column, "Obama's popular in Europe, where it doesn't count," Doyle McManus wrote that race won't play a factor in 2012 as it did in 2008.

He won't be running as an African American or an Irish American or even a hybrid American; he'll be running as an incumbent with a record. His popularity in Europe won't help; nor will his newfound roots in Moneygall. Only an economic recovery will.

The 2012 election is likely to be as post-racial an election as America can produce. Ironically, that may not be entirely good news for Barack Obama.

What do you, the voters, think? Will Obama's race be a crucial factor in 2008, or does the economy trump race (and, frankly, all other issues)?

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--Alexandra Le Tellier

Photo: President Obama speaks to supporters at a campaign rally in Miami on June 13. Credit: J Pat Carter / Associated Press

President Obama's status as a black politician was the subject of debate last month between two black scholars who argued that the president had not urgently addressed black issues.  Princeton professor Cornel West argued that Obama has been adopting a white, elite agenda, and Princeton scholar and Nation columnist Melissa Harris-Perry said the president has been hindered by right-wing racism against him. Erin Aubry Kaplan, contributing Opinion editor to the Times, said West and Harris-Perry's disagreement is bigger than Obama; it revives the historic argument between black leaders' strategies of assimilation and nationalism. Here's an excerpt:

But Obama is a product of institutions. He is a fortunate middle-class son of the post-'60s, pro-integration era whose own success was due less to black empowerment than adherence to mainstream mores and values. Black nationalism or any clear support of black unity or racial justice is an anathema to those values; it certainly would have doomed Obama politically. This is true even though politically speaking, the president owes blacks as much as he owes Jews or any other constituency that voted for him in significant numbers. […]

But putting aside the question of whether Obama is in a position to do much of anything, can principles of assimilation and black unity coexist at the top? Can they coexist at all? The big unstated fear among many blacks, including West, is that Obama will turn out to be yet another disappointing black politician, one who readily articulates the needs of those at the bottom but doesn't ultimately address them. That's a crisis of another color.

Readers are criticizing both West’s argument and Obama. Here is what they’re saying:

Voters always face disappointment

Welcome to the real world.  Everyone who has ever supported a political candidate has been disappointed that they didn't follow through with every promise (spoken or assumed) once in office.  It has nothing to do with racism.  EVERY president faces an organized opposition:  it's called the "two-party system" and it existed long before the first Black president took office (I mean Obama, not Clinton...he the reputed victim of a "vast right-wing conspiracy") 

The argument over nationalism or assimilation with regard to President Obama's ascent in politics may be legitimate, but mistaking political opposition for racism is excuse-making that betrays ignorance of the American political system and is, therefore, counterproductive.

-- LindaB

Opposition is because of policies, not race

I don't understand this at all.  Why do arguments like this always get back around to racism?  Yes, I am white, but I don't look at Obama as "a black president," but as "my president."  When I see opposition, it isn't because the president is black; the opposition I see is due to his policies, his decisions, his actions (or lack thereof).

-- menotyou2011

West’s criticism is hypocritical

Isn't it strange that Cornel West, who preaches "race first, last, and always", is a professor at Princeton, and not say a professor at Howard, Wilberforce, or some other traditionally black university? That it is OK for him to work (and play) in the non-black world, but he wants other blacks to stay homeboys? Maybe he fears competition, competition from other blacks that might be smarter then him, and expose him for what he is, just another race-baiter.     

-- edwardskizer

Race is not a factor in Obama’s poor performance

Obama is not a poor performing black President, he is just a poor performing president, period.

-- masjig

Obama already hindered without prioritizing black issues

Could you imagine if Obama really was a black-issues first president, as West wants him to be? Could you imagine the level of resistance from right-wing groups?....Obama is handcuffed like no one I've ever seen, and yet has still managed to enact progressive legislation -- flawed as it may be...

I am white, and yet I fear the "white, moneyed elite," as any rational person should. Too many voters worship success and status, as end in themselves, and I am afraid it will be that tendency that allows a "successful businessman" like Mitt Romney to slip into the White House -- a businessman whose "success" was achieved by firing American workers and shipping jobs overseas....

-- Scott sacramento

He’s president of a multi-ethnic nation, not black America

This makes me crazy.  As a black American, Obama is not President of black Americans, he is President of a multi-ethnic country, period.  He of course has to have the overall benefit of ALL Americans at the top of his agenda.  And lets not forget that Obama is HALF black - his white mother and grandmother ensured his education and upbringing.  It is horrible how everyone wants to dismiss their contribution.  While I respect Cornell West, he is self-aggrandizing thinking that the President, any President, should listen to him.  Please!

-- Jezzoid

For black voters, Obama is better than the GOP

I have followed this story, and it certainly gives one much to think about. But there is no real, meaningful rift among blacks about Obama. He will do 95 percent with black voters, or probably higher, in 2012. I'm fairly confident Obama will get the vote of Cornel West and everyone else in the black community when it comes down to a choice of him and whatever right-winger the GOP throws up there. Presidential elections are binary choices -- we receive sharp reminders of that every four years.

What I do hear more often among my fellow African Americans is the sense that Obama is not being "given a chance" by the media and the white world. I think that complaint is somewhat overblown, but it's a firmly held belief by many black Americans. As a result many of them, including his critics, have a vested interest in seeing him re-elected and will try to make that happen.

Lastly, I disagree this is an issue of assimilation vs. non-assimilation. Black people have the capacity to understand that the person serving as president must represent all Americans, and the question of whether Obama is "black enough" has long been settled within the community. (Though the mainstream has forgotten, we all remember how he stood up for Henry Louis Gates against the invading police force.) The issues some folks have with him are over policy -- and there's nothing unusual or wrong about that.

-- MyronB.Pitts

*Spelling errors in the above comments were corrected. 

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Photo: Left to right: Cornel West and Melissa Harris-Perry. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times;  Chaz Neill / PictureGroup / Associated Press

If you're a teacher or a politician, you have at least a common affliction: too many standardized tests.

Educators often complain about the need to "teach to the test." But what about the need to "campaign to the test"?

One stifles students' educations; the other is threatening to stifle our political discourse.

For politicians, there are numerous such tests, especially for Republicans today.  For example, Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote Saturday about the religion test.

Pointing to numerous possible GOP presidential hopefuls who have made faith a central part of campaign oratory, Rutten recalls the warning issued by John F. Kennedy in his 1960 speech on religion and politics:

"This year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed; in other years it has been — and may someday be again — a Jew, or a Quaker, or a Unitarian, or a Baptist. It was Virginia's harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that led to Jefferson's statute of religious freedom. Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you, until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril."

Then there's the conservative purity test.

For presumed GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, it's about healthcare.  As rival Tim Pawlenty said in a Times story Sunday:

"President Obama said that he designed Obamacare after Romneycare and basically made it Obamneycare," Pawlenty told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "And so, we now have the same features -- essentially the same features. The president's own words is that he patterned in large measure Obamacare after what happened in Massachusetts. And what I don't understand is they both continue to defend it."

Later in the story, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum took his own swings at Romney, and at former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman:

"I think they have held positions in the past that have not been conservative," he told David Gregory on NBC’s "Meet the Press." "And I think they have to account for those."

Huntsman served as Obama's ambassador to China.  His reward from fellow Republicans for serving his country at the president's request?  As a Times story Monday said:

Huntsman's two years of service to Obama may be a disqualifier in a party that seems in no mood to compromise, as former Gov. John Sununu of New Hampshire indicated the other day when asked whether he might endorse Huntsman.

"I only support Republicans," Sununu said.

But it's not just Republicans who face tests.  As the same story pointed out:

President Obama, aggressively gearing up for reelection, has compiled his own record of policy reversals. PolitiFact.com, which tracks what it calls "full flops" by prominent political figures, catalogs nine instances in which Obama made 180-degree flip.

Want more?  Here's another doozy from the Democrats. Last week, Californians got their first looks at proposed redistricting. The idea is to bring more moderate candidates into play, both Democrats and Republicans.

The Times on Saturday wrote about Congressional District 26, which is represented by Republican Rep. David Dreier but which, under the new plan, may become more heavily Democratic and Latino.

The story quotes Marlen Garcia, a Democrat and mayor pro tem of Baldwin Park, which is in the proposed new district. Garcia "said her community had been anxiously awaiting the proposed district maps in hopes that they might bring better representation for low-income Latinos. She said she hoped a new representative would be a Democrat and Latino."

Since she cast her first vote as a teenager growing up in Boyle Heights, Garcia said, "I knew I needed someone in office who was my color skin, spoke my language and understood my living conditions and culture. It had a huge impact."

Is this truly where America is headed?  Is it going to be that only a Latino representative can represent Latinos, with presumably the same applying for blacks, Asians, whites, gays, straights. Where does that process end? 

And for Republicans, will it really be that only the purest of religious and hard-right conservatives need apply? A moderate Republican like Huntsman, appointed in a display of bipartisanship by a Democratic president, is branded a traitor for it by his own party?

This is the wrong road for America, both for Republicans and Democrats. Religion is a personal matter, not a political one. Race, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation are not the key qualifications for office. Bipartisanship is not retreat. Compromise is not defeat. 

As the ancient Greek poet Hesiod advised: "Observe due measure; moderation is best in all things."

--Paul Whitefield 

GOP presidential candidates greet the crowd at a New Hampshire hockey arena prior to Monday's debate. From left, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Herman Cain. Credit: Jim Cole / Associated Press

Most viewed, commented and shared: The unhappy white majority

Gregory Rodriguez's column addresses a recent Wall Street Journal article about a survey on how whites and blacks view one another.

Over the past decade, we've seen a rising tide of aggrieved white folks. Accusations of reverse discrimination have increased, along with high-profile court cases like the one filed by firefighters in New Haven, Conn., in which white men claimed they were denied potential promotions because of their race. (The Supreme Court agreed.)

Reader "Beware" weighs in on the discussion board  with what it means to live in a society with institutionalized racism, including this entry:

- I can curse, wear raggedy clothes, speak loudly or clown around in public without it being contributed to the detriment of the bad morals or illiteracy of my entire race.

- If I am asked for ID I can reasonably be sure my race had no consideration in the request. Whether it is from a store when writing a check or using a credit card, or questioning from law enforcement.

- I don’t worry about my children being treated unfairly because of their race and I can protect them from most people who might not like them.

- I can go into any grocery store and find food that fits my cultural traditions, I can walk into any salon and find someone able to cut my hair.

- I can easily choose to work where most, if not all, are the same race as me.

- When I watch tv or read a magazine most of the people represented are the same race as me.

- On the news and in the newspaper most people are depicted in a positive way.

- If I was involved in a natural (or otherwise) disaster and out of necessity had to scavenge for food, I would most likely not be thought a looter or criminal.

- I am never asked to speak for my entire race.

- I can take a job with an affirmative action employer and not have everyone suspect that's how I got the job.

Is there a remedy? Here is reader “GregMaragos” on the topic:

Affirmative Action and other well-intentioned programs like it are paradoxical in that they attempt to counter the ill-effects of racial discrimination with more racial discrimination--but racial discrimination that is carefully engineered to achieve a desirable social outcome.  In effect, we've accepted--even embraced--racial discrimination as an unavoidable fact of everyday life that will always define who we are as human beings and what we are able to achieve in society.  Therefore, since we cannot eliminate bad racial discrimination, we must counterbalance its effects with "good" racial discrimination.  The end result should greatly resemble, at least in theory, a society with NO racial discrimination, since these two competing forces will more or less cancel one another out.

The spirit of Affirmative Action says, "let's help somebody overcome these unjust social constructs and achieve everything he is capable of".  In practice it says, "I'm sorry, Mr. Jones--your grades are good and your SAT's score is stellar--but, darn it, I'm looking at your skin, and it's just not the right color.  You can't attend the University of Michigan Law School.  Better luck next time!"

Racial equality SHOULD mean that you treat everybody the same, REGARDLESS of race.  Rodriguez and others, however, still believe race plays a role in YOUR role in society.

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--Alexandra Le Tellier

Kansas wasn't that populous a state in the 1950s and '60s -– a couple of million people, smaller than Orange County -- so I wonder whether Marilyn Davenport ever ran into some of her fellow Kansans: Wichita folks by the name of Dunham.

Davenport now lives in Southern California. She is also the Orange County Republican Central Committee official who sent out an email to some pals a few days ago. It showed three seated figures, father, mother, baby, with chimpanzee faces pasted over the man's and the woman's faces, and President Obama's face over the baby's. "Now you know why no birth certificate," the accompanying text reads.

Davenport issued one of those passive-aggressive apologies that puts the burden on the recipient, not the sender; she has said she thought it was "amusing regarding the character of Obama" and is only sorry if anyone was offended.

Who could not be? Not only by the image and the inference but then by Davenport's protest that "in no way did I even consider the fact he's half black when I sent out the email."

Her explanation seems contradicted by what she told the OC Weekly in an interview, that "I only sent it to a few people — mostly people I didn't think would be upset by it." If she thought other people might be upset by it, then obviously she must have understood that it is intrinsically offensive.

Hers is as disingenuous a rationale as that offered by another Orange County official in a related predicament a couple of years ago. Just after Obama was sworn in, the mayor of Los Alamitos, Dean Grose, shared an email with a picture of the White House lawn planted with watermelons and the line ''No Easter egg hunt this year.'' Grose resigned -- something Davenport has said she will not do -- but he too explained perplexingly that he had absolutely no clue that there was any stereotype about black people and watermelon.

Really? Is life so sheltered, so insulated in Orange County that these two had never even heard of the centuries-old black people/ape slurs? How about the ''Gorillas in the Mist'' reference made by one of the four officers in the Rodney King beating case, regarding a domestic violence call to an African American household? That was all over the news in Southern California for months. And those watermelon/black people stereotypes have been around for more than a century, on postcards, in stand-up comic routines and edgy TV shows. Ring any bells? Really?

The county’s Republican chair, Scott Baugh, knows all about these stereotypes, and he told the OC Weekly: "Depicting African Americans as monkey is a longtime, well-known and particularly offensive slur because it denies them their basic humanity … The damage to the Republican Party has been done by her, and I still think she should resign."

If none of this long, wide and deep history was known to  Davenport, why did she not then send an email of a picture of a family of dolphins, with the president’s face on the youngest? Or the bears in Goldilocks? No birth certificates for marine mammals or ursines either.

So, back to Kansas, Davenport’s home state, Bleeding Kansas, the frayed rope in the tug of war over race and slavery in this country since the 19th century, a free-state-or-slave-state battleground well before the actual Civil War, and at the heart of race in America, from John Brown's raids to the Kansas-born Brown vs. the Board of Education Supreme Court case.

Maybe Davenport's path did not cross the Dunhams'. Ann Dunham -- Stanley Ann Dunham, officially -- was a few years younger than Marilyn Davenport, and her parents, Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, a number of years older.

The Dunhams traveled the country a bit before they came back to Kansas, and their daughter wound up at college in Hawaii, where she married a Kenyan graduate student and gave birth to her son, Stanley and Madelyn's grandson, Barack Obama -- the man whose parentage was mocked in Davenport's email.

In a later email, Davenport remarked: "To my fellow Americans and to everyone else who has seen this email I forwarded and was offended by my action, I humbly apologize and ask for your forgiveness of my unwise behavior. I say unwise because at the time I received and forwarded the email, I didn't stop to think about the historic implications and other examples of how this could be offensive.’’

"Tea party" activists set great store by American history, but theirs may be a selective enthusiasm. If you take at face value what Davenport says, that hers was an act of ignorance and not racism, then the question is: How could a daughter of Bleeding Kansas be so utterly clueless about what is, in fact, her own history and heritage -– and that of Obama and his family too?

They aren’t in Kansas anymore, yet the Sunflower State, one of the earliest scars from the nation’s deepest self-inflicted wounds, is still in them -- and in all of us, and we can only heal that scar if we are smart enough to remember it.

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-- Patt Morrison

Photo: President Barack Obama, accompanied by Barbara Miner, PhD, Manager, Intel Transmission Electronic Microscope Lab, right, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini, second from left, looks at a computer screen at the Intel Corporation with in Hillsboro, Ore., Friday, Feb. 18, 2011. Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Most viewed and shared: Teaching, the most important profession

Although "teachers and their unions are under fire across the nation," victims of "contempt and anger," novelist and teacher Susan Straight would like us to remember that teachers "are some of the most important people in children's lives." Read on for Straight's take on why we need a reality check when it comes to public education and respecting teachers.

Most commented: President Obama: At odds with clear demographic trends toward multiracial pride

Gregory Rodriguez's Monday column asks: Why did President Obama check "black" on his 2010 census form when he is, in fact, half white? In the process, did he alienate the growing demographic of Americans who proudly identify themselves as multiracial? Or was this a smart political move?

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President Obama formally announced his 2012 reelection bid Monday, but has he already alienated 2.9% of the population for only checking "black" on his 2010 census form? Should he have copped to his multiracial status for both a teachable moment and political gain?

That's the topic of Gregory Rodriguez's Monday column, in which he points to a growing trend of people who identify themselves as "multiracial."

On the one hand, Rodriguez argues:

It could have been a historic teaching moment. Instead, President Obama, the most famous mixed-race person in the world, checked off only one race -- black -- last year on his census form. And in so doing, he missed an opportunity to articulate a more nuanced racial vision for the increasingly diverse country he heads.

On the other hand, as Rodriguez points out, identifying himself as black has helped Obama's political career, which was viewed DOA during his early years in Chicago because he wasn't black enough. Representing the other side of the argument, Rodriguez interviewed San Francisco State University political scientist Robert C. Smith, who supports Obama's course of action:

"Obama made the politically correct choice. If he had come to Chicago calling himself multiracial, he would have had no political career. And I think if he called himself multiracial now, black people would see it as a betrayal."

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--Alexandra Le Tellier

President Obama. Credit: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Geetika Tandon Lizardi's Op-Ed about NBC's "Outsourced," for which she is a writer, has remained one of the most viewed items on the Opinion pages since it published March 21. In the piece, Lizardi defended the television program, urging viewers not to be ashamed for liking the program. It's not racist, she argued. It's satire. She explains:

Last pilot season NBC made a crazy move. It green-lighted an unlikely new sitcom set in a Mumbai call center. "Outsourced" was the hippest thing to happen to South Asians in the United States since Madonna discovered henna. As a writer, I was thrilled to hear about the show, not only because I'm an American of Indian descent but because I recently lived in Mumbai, helping my husband run a call center. […]

In my time on the writing staff, I've been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for the show, especially from members of the South Asian community. Positive comments on Twitter after the show airs heavily outnumber critical ones, and according to the New York Times, even an audience of call center workers in India loved the show.

What's odd, then, is the level of vitriol directed at us by some reviewers. They've called it "insulting and condescending," filled with "offensive stereotypes" and based on "obvious cultural ignorance" on the part of the writers. New fans of the show seem to feel the need to post and tweet apologies for liking it: "I'm sorry but I really love 'Outsourced' " or "I think 'Outsourced' is hilarious. Don't hate me."

Just as Lizardi said in her Op-Ed, the subject of "Outsourced" has been ripe for debate. Here's what a few of our readers had to say in our discussion board.

The audience isn’t smart enough to understand the joke

Outsourced and the Metro PCS commercials both use the Indian culture as the butt of their jokes. It is a mentality that we can laugh at them because they're different.

While I believe the writers and actors are talented and intelligent I doubt the viewing audience is. I question weather it is understood that the comedy feeds to create a negative stereotype of the Indian cultrue because we assume the audience IS intelligent when in fact they're not. […]

--Mark Graski

"Outsourced" isn't really about being able to laugh at ourselves

That's exactly the problem: this show isn't about being able to "laugh at ourselves", it's all about laughing at and propagating entrenched misconceptions about other races. Not content with race and sex jokes, the writers pull of a hat trick by trotting out, of all vile things, caste jokes. Stop, please, my sides hurt from all the laughter.

-- john.d.perkins

It's great to see America as viewed through another culture's eyes

I love 'Outsourced'. It's great to have a sitcom that's not based on the same tired formulas we see repeated over and over. And as a person who lived in a foreign country for a few years myself, I think culture shock / culture clash is an untapped goldmine for stories of both comedy and drama. America needs to realize that yes, there are different ways of living, and no it isn't racist to talk about them. […]

I love learning about bits of India through 'Outsourced'. And I love seeing America viewed through another culture's eyes. I really hope this show gets a second season.

--o.take.me.there

"Outsourced" does for Indians what "The Cosby Show" did for African Americans

"Outsourced" is very funny. I think it does for Indians what "The Cosby Show" did for African-Americans and what "George Lopez" did for hispanics. As for whether it helps or hurts the outsourced cause, I think it's a wash. On one hand it reminds us of American jobs being lost to outsourcing, but on the other hand it puts a face to the outsourced employees. I personally am against outsourcing because I feel the money should stay here in the U.S. ("Outsourced" has not changed my view on this issue.) I still think the show is very funny. My whole family watches it every week.

 --JWK123

 It’s an offensive show full of stereotypes

As an American of Indian descent, I and my wife were horrified at the insult- and stereotype-laden couple of episodes we saw, never to tune in again. At a subsequent party of Indians Americans, both those born here in America and in India, the topic of your TV show came up and the verdict was unanimous: this was an incredibly offensive show, contemptuous of Indians. […]

Shame on you, as a self-proclaimed American of Indian origin, for writing such despicable stories. You do not speak for us Indians. If the producers think that this is a good excuse for producing such a racist show, they should think again. […]

--AshokKr

Let's admit that there are things about Indian culture that are funny

I'm of Indian descent and I find the show very funny. My wife and I look forward to it every week. I think the Indians upset about this show need to get a grip. They probably are the same ones complaining about Slumdog Millionaire. I enjoyed that as well. Let's be honest and admit that there are things about Indian culture that are funny! And really this show is about the cultural differences and how there are clashes sometimes. Again, it can be funny!

Hey, John D. Perkins! Are you telling me you haven't come across any white Americans who couldn't handle Indian food? I find them all the time and I live in the big city. This character was from Kansas City. It's quite possible he wasn't familiar with Indian food. And, yes, there are still some people concerned about castes and there are arranged marriages over there.

Hey, Ranibee! Cows do walk around large Indian cities. I've seen them myself. I have a photo of a cow in the median of a busy road. And the whoopie cushion, fake vomit stuff is because the company in the show is a NOVELTY company. And there are definitely cultural differences between western humor and Indian humor which is ripe for exploration.

--KolyanDasGupta

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Photo: Sacha Dhawan as Manmeet on "Outsourced." Credit: Chris Haston / NBC

Most Viewed: 'Whites-only' isn't diversity

Our editorial about a Texas scholarship that excludes nonwhites continues to draw attention for a second day in a row.  

If there are scholarships and loan programs and government contracts set aside for blacks and Latinos, can there be similar set-asides for whites?

That's one of the questions raised by a small organization in Texas that has decided to offer white men $500 college scholarships. "In a country that proclaims equality for all," says the Former Majority Assn. for Equality, "we provide monetary aid to those that have found the scholarship application process difficult because they do not fit into certain categories or any ethnic group." Read on and join the heated conversation.

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Where do you stand on Peter King’s Muslim hearings? Is he doing the right thing, or unnecessarily exasperating Islamophobia?

Trending on Facebook: Do you suffer from Facebook envy?

Studies show that Facebook can crush one's self-esteem, writes Op-Ed columnist Meghan Daum. Still, readers have flocked back to the mothership, er, Facebook, to share this very column.

--Alexandra Le Tellier

Most Viewed: He's Charlie Sheen, and you're not

Forget Libya. Forget Peter King. Forget Guantanamo. We’re a country that’s gone mad for Charlie Sheen, the actor who started #winning after he was fired by “Two and a Half Men” and started drinking #tigerblood. Fortunately, we can’t relate –- and that’s liberated us from the illusions we harbor about stars. In fact, stars are not just like us.

Most commented: 'Whites-only' isn't diversity

In an editorial about a Texas scholarship that excludes nonwhites, the board led with a question: “If there are scholarships and loan programs and government contracts set aside for blacks and Latinos, can there be similar set-asides for whites?” It appears that’s when many readers stopped reading and started commenting. If they had, read to the end, they’d have gotten to the heart of the argument:

Scholarships and other arrangements that favor racial minorities are generally an attempt to counter the effects of centuries of white privilege. And despite what some people might believe, those effects haven't gone away. This country has done much to overcome its history of racism, but gaping disparities in education and wealth persist.  

Trending on Facebook: International Women's Day: Actor Daniel Craig in drag is no match for the gender inequality in China

Tuesday marked the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. It was a day to reflect how far we’ve come –- and how far we have to go. A special thanks to Daniel Craig for wearing a dress, we think.

-- Alexandra Le Tellier