Rachel Maddow and Brown University Africana Studies Department Chair Professor Tricia Rose examine our examination of talking about race relations in America today. The disconnect, between rhetoric and reality, is a measure of the power of myths over facts in the minds of electorates.

The media spent a full day on Monday, January 11th, dissecting and reconstructing the surface meaning of Sen. Harry Reid’s remarks on Obama, which most pundits and political leaders have characterized as racist. But was the comment really racist? Was it correct but said the wrong way? Does it mater how it was said? And how much more damage did the media do to the public’s already existing inability to unflinchingly address and discuss real issues concerning race?

Do you remember Sesame Street, the “One of these things is not like the others” game? Well it seems the Republicans don’t. In a way it is hardly surprising since Sesame Street is a product of the Godless public broadcasting system. Still they might want to pull some of the old tapes out and get a little practice with comparing things, because, frankly, they stink at it.

People are discussing how to best honor the late great Teddy Kennedy, and the first thought is to do what he would have wanted us to do — which is to memorialize him by getting meaningful health care reform passed and made into law. But that’s not allowed for Democrats. Remember the ginned-up real-time media outrage over five minutes of remarks during Paul Wellstone’s Williams Arena memorial event in 2002? Remember also when, a few short weeks later when Strom Thurmond had his 100th birthday party, the media did NOT stage a real-time freakout over partisanship when Thurmond’s birthday party was not only turned into a GOP campaign ad, but into praise for Thurmond’s deeply racist career?