Wow. At the time I'm writing, there are 11 other responses, and they're all unconvinced/opposed/offended regarding the parent comment. I'm embarrassed by the deliberate ignorance on display.

Race was and is a key factor in American politics, and in politics everywhere. (I don't know anything about politics in, say, Cambodia, but I can tell you race is a key factor.) The civil rights movement, 20 years before crack was a political issue, faced such powerful opposition that it reversed the polarity of US political parties (causing the former Confederate states to flip to R from D).

In this light, sibling responses to the tune of "why do you have to make it about race" or "seems like it was more about X" read as worse than ignorant. You'd have to be willful to be this ignorant about politics.

My 2c: Parent comment is so obvious it is inane. But apparently I'm in the wrong here.