The problem is that this country hasn't or won't leave race behind. I don't even know how to word the examples of which I'm thinking wherein someone wouldn't bring race into the conversation. For example, democrats have a legitimate disagreement with former Florida Representative Allan West. No problem on a policy level, whether you agree with the democrats or not. It's a matter of trying to find the best answers for the country. So why do many call him a traitor to his race or worse?
I don't know of many white democrats who do. I do know of many black people who call him a traitor. In my case, and I suspect many others, it's because he likes to portray black voters as unthinking, welfare-loving, slaves on some supposed "democrat plantation" in order to line his own pockets. Whether or not he believes that this is the case, he's clearly no friend to black people.
If he doesn't like it, then he has a simple choice - he can stop portraying black people as stupid and lazy.
Or, many Republicans have legitimate complaints about the President's policies and goals. Why does the conversation often devolve into a race issue? It's irrelevant - it's about trying to find what is best for the country.
Sadly, these republicans largely lack representation in the current GOP. Instead, we have folks like Mitch McConnell who rail against their own proposals once the president endorses them, or the clowns who comprised the 2012 GOP primary who just couldn't wait to insult the president and people who shared his skin color.
Let's take a step further - let's say that I say that I can't stand to look at a particular white politician (since I'm generically white [more accurately, in the minority group German-Hungarian, but who cares]) because they irritate the living daylights out of me - I've said that many times about members of both parties*. Does that make me bigoted against white people? Or is it because I can't get a straight, simple answer out of them? Not that the solutions are simple, but the way a question is answered should be.
No, wait, this is not the same. First, there's, you know, the history of the US. You know, the deep, proud tradition of violent white supremacy. Then, there's the decades-long, loud insistence that black people, of all people, are unusually dependent on government assistance, to the point that they are "welfare queens" or "young bucks" buying T-bone steaks. And then there are the Birthers, the folks who insist that Obama is a "Kenyan anti-colonialist", an "affirmative action hire" and the like.
Sorry, but at this point, you may as well claim that it's unfair to call Jerry Sandusky a child abuser. It's fine to say that some republicans are not bigoted, but that doesn't change the fact that bigotry is clearly a major driving force in the GOP. It's why they oppose gay guys visiting one another in the hospital, it's why they insist on calling any woman that they think is on birth control a "slut", and it's why they insist that black people love being on welfare.
If they don't like that perception, then it's up to them to change their behavior.
