The presidency of Barack Obama dominated political events in 2009.  Whether it was discussion of the bank bailouts last winter or the continuing failure of the government to solve the problem of depression-era unemployment, the blame or success will be laid on the doorstep of Obama’s White House.  Whether or not Congress passes meaningful health care reform, it will be on this president’s watch.  After announcing an American troop surge in Afghanistan, this administration now owns that war. And whether the fortunes of the far right and white nationalist movements rose or fell during the past year, Barack Hussein Obama will be regarded—rightly or wrongly—as the cause.

Unemployment rates tell us some things about how the economy is doing. But aggregate rates, even if they go down a virtual eighth of an inch like they did in November, hide high levels of disparity by race. And they have told us next to nothing about any link between unemployment and violence by organized self-conscious racists.

In Gainesville, Florida, a Christian pastor sent his ten-year old daughter to school with the slogan “Islam is of the Devil” printed in large red block type on the back of her t-shirt. The same slogan had been posted on a homemade sign outside a nearby church. In South Carolina, the words “death to Muslims” were marked near an entrance to an Islamic Center.

A Michigan university got quite a shock when they requested a speaker from an upstate anti-immigration group.