[Sigh]

Here it is, made appallingly manifest, by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:

It’s been obvious that they’re doing everything they can to make him fail.  And I hope, I hope—and I say this seriously—I hope that’s based on substance and not the fact that he’s African-American.

Because it’s impossible for a white man to criticize a black man.  That would be racist.

Never mind that Reid’s racism is an insult not just to every American, but in particular to those Americans who also happen to be black: Reid is saying that a black man is simply too child-like, too immature, too unintelligent to be able to handle being criticized by a fellow American who happens also to be white.