Black issues invisible in this campaign

[Commentary] What's odd is that while this election is historic precisely because of the major-party candidacy of a man who, under U.S. standards of race, is black, race goes unaddressed. Instead, race is both everywhere and nowhere, overriding and unacknowledged, a presence rather than a set of concrete issues. It stalks the conference room, uninvited, and never gets to sit at the table with the subjects that matter. The media's failure to force either candidate to talk about race-related policies creates an enormous potential for Obama, no less than McCain, to ignore or soft-pedal a basketful of historically explosive issues. Three years ago, after Hurricane Katrina reacquainted white Americans with the persistence of black poverty, brave words were spoken and bold pledges made. How ironic it would be if now this racially historic campaign ushered in a new era of racial neglect. (Edward Wasserman is Knight professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University.)