SPIEGEL Interview with Michael Eric Dyson about the race issue:

[Call Me Wesley]

Race Is a 'Tough Tightrope for Obama'

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1331970,00.jpg

In a SPIEGEL interview, sociologist and Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson explains why Barack Obama can't be emotional, his similarities with Martin Luther King, black self-hatred and the shades of black success.

SPIEGEL: Professor Dyson, the polls show Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama clearly ahead of Republican candidate John McCain. The Republican Party's standing in the polls seems to have hit rock bottom, and the financial crisis is helping Obama. Has he already won the election?

Michael Eric Dyson: Certainly. If he were a white man, he'd be up by 15 to 20 points in the polls. But there are many Americans who -- regardless of the intelligence or the profound political persuasion of a figure like Barack Obama -- will never vote for a black man. Not all of them are racists; some are skeptical, and some are suspicious.

Full interview here