Ms. Judd, I was disheartened to read that you decided not to run against Mitch McConnell for the Kentucky senate seat. Several days prior to your announcement, I was especially disturbed by reports that the Clinton machine had thrown their support behind newly elected Secretary of State, Alison Lundergan Grimes. News accounts suggested that they favored Ms. Lundergan Grimes because of her family's political ties and her more moderate ideological views, which they believed would go over well in the supposedly conservative state.

The following collection of essays offers a fresh assessment of the nature of racism in 21st-century America and an examination of opportunities for healing it. The subject could not be more important. In many ways, race is a stain that runs across the entire fabric of American history almost from the beginning of European entry to the New World to the election of Barack Obama as the first African American president.