Let’s call people we disagree with racists. We often do that anyway, but during such an open discussion, it is particularly important that dissenting voices be swiftly condemned. Richard Cohen, who wrote that Zimmerman might have had legitimate grounds to be suspicious of Martin? That guy is David Duke with a Washington Post column. Please refer all complaints about the publication of his piece to Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor of the Post. People have an obligation to be careful about what they say or publish during a national dialogue about race, especially one as freewheeling as this.

Let’s not talk about the 90 percent of black murder victims killed by other blacks. That is not a fit topic for the nation’s wide-ranging national conversation. Why should we get worked up about something that happens on the streets of Chicago literally every night? If you are bothered by routine slaughter, sadly, you just don’t get it. For national conversation purposes, not all murders are equal.

Let’s blast New York City’s stop-and-frisk policy as the worst kind of racial inequity. Let’s not bother to note that New York City once had 2,200 murders a year and now has 400, nor that many of the thousands of lives saved are those of black men. Let’s focus on the important thing — condemning the policy that is saving those lives as heinously racist.