In the wake of the phenomenally depressing Prescott billboard story, Roger Ebert delivers a terrific piece on racism. So good. I know he doesn’t speak for everybody, but I wish he did.

I’m a little late with this, but just got around to reading it in full, Imagine if the Tea Party was Black:

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

This is old news, but new to me. The folks behind the OkCupid dating site have a weblog where they analyze all kinds of interesting dating data. We all know that looks matter, but their number crunching is still fascinating.

Update: See also Your Race Affects Whether People Write You Back. Heck, just subscribe to the OkTrends weblog and read it all.