Racism still exists, America. It's just gotten very subtle.

One of the things White folks need to get through their heads is that African-Americans do listen, do pay attention, and do know all the code words and behaviors.

Why? It's a matter of survival for us. We have lived in a world, a world that existed as recently as 50 years ago, within my Father's lifetime, where an African-American saying the wrong thing, or merely looking at someone the wrong way could get them killed.

Don't believe me? Ask Emmett Till. To esoteric a reference for you, then why don't you try Amadou Diallo or Abner Louima?

Of course, they represent the most extreme form of racism.  Today, it's form is far more supple, downright invisible until it strikes.

The election of an African-American President is a historical step forward for us as a society and a nation, it does not mean America has moved past its at times very racist self.

No, we don't have crosses burned on our lawns.  We're not called every name but a child of god.  That's the past.  Now, we just have our authenticity questioned.  If you're like me, you have extra eyes following you around the store when you shop, or you see the bag get clutched a little tighter when you're on the elevator.  (Or you're told over and over again that the movie that offends you shouldn't offend you).

If you're the President, you're hounded (repeatedly) for your birth certificate.  If you're his wife, you're right to complain is cut off.

Consider what Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry says in this piece, and what it says about the view that fundamentally, there's a certain part in the lizard-brain of American that simply will never view me as a "real" American.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What should scare you (Lord knows it scares me) is that I've found these lizard-brain reactions not just in Conservatives, but Liberals as well.

Joe Scarborough: People who think Bachmann can win are "too stupid to run a Slurpee Machine in Des Moines"... (VIDEO)

Huffington Post makes you watch the whole clip, but Fort McHenry cuts right to the good stuff:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Slightly off topic, the look on Halperin's face is priceless.

Chris Matthews on the Michelle Bachmann cover...(VIDEO)

The key part to me is about 5 minutes in, where Chris just tees off on Bachmann on her statement about slavery from a couple months back.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Brian Ross talks about what happened between him and Bachmann's Staff on...The View?? (VIDEO)

I thought there might be video. I just didn't expect this:

Michelle Bachmann's Goons rough up Brian Ross of ABC News

The question of the day (with a hat tip to NC Steve 3.0 over at TPM) is whether Republican voters will consider today's incident a feature, or a bug. (You know which way I'm leaning.)

That’s when things got interesting. Ross dashed after Bachmann, repeatedly asking whether she had ever missed a House vote due to a migraine. She ignored him. Ross pursued her into a parking area behind the stage. Her aides grew alarmed. When Ross made a beeline for the white SUV waiting to carry Bachmann away, two Bachmann men pounced on him, grabbing and pushing him multiple times with what looked to me like unusual force. In fact, I have never seen a reporter treated so roughly at a campaign event, especially not a presidential one. Ross was finally able to break away and lob his question at Bachmann one more time, but she continued to ignore him.

Afterward, I asked Ross — a hard-nosed pro who nevertheless seemed slightly shaken — whether he had ever been treated so roughly. “A few times,” he told me. “Mostly by mafia people.”

I'm pretty sure Brian Ross has the video of this. Film at eleven!