For a perfect example of how much further Great Britain has moved as a society toward racial harmony, one only has to look at the popular television show "Britain's Got Talent" and the recent performance of a comedian who used a puppet monkey to pantomime a montage of Michael Jackson songs. He received a standing ovation from the audience and was passed on to the next round of competition by the judges which included that omnipresent arbiter of talent, Simon Cowell. You can view the video here.

While I - like the live audience in England - thought the performance was entertaining and absolutely hilarious, my thoughts immediately turned to how this performance would have been received today in the United States. Would an American audience have applauded or jeered the performance? In brief: How would it play in Peoria? Given the current (and, seemingly, never-ending) climate of racial sensitivity, I would guess that there would have been, at best, a mixed audience response. I would also venture to guess that comments would be solicited from the usual suspects by the next morning’s "talking heads."

To take a measure of the national gauge of racial animosity that bedevils this country, let’s look at a few random examples of recent contentious issues:

- An incumbent U.S. Senator is defeated by his Democratic opponent (primarily) after he (Senator Allen) used the word "macaca" to refer to a man of Indian descent.

- Long-time radio personality Don Imus is fired after making racial comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team which faced the Tennessee Volunteers in the NCAA championship game. The most offensive of his comments was "nappy-headed hos." A storm of protests forced MSNBC to fire him within a week.

- In Jena, Louisiana, 6 black teenagers were arrested after allegedly beating a white student in retaliation (again, allegedly) for nooses hung by white students to warn off black students about sitting under a tree at their school. The incident sparked songs by noted songwriters and national protests. The local district attorney has moon-walked away from his prosecution of the individuals involved in the faint hopes that the issue will just go away.

- A Noble Prize-winning biologist, 79 year old James D. Watson, is forced to resign his post for suggesting that there might be genetic-based, racial differences in IQ.

There are many more applicable examples (see 2006 Duke lacrosse scandal), but these will suffice. Indeed, a recent poll shows that racism remains a major public concern in the U.S. Almost half (49%) of black respondents consider racism a "very serious" problem; an additional thirty-five per cent said it was a "somewhat serious" problem. According to this poll of 1300 or so respondents, almost eighty-five per cent of blacks consider racism a significant problem in America today.

It is clear, at least to me, that race - in its simplest terms, the pigment content of one’s epidermis - is ordained to haunt and tear at this nation for as long as it might exist. The curse of slavery and its tragic aftermath will forever rip at the heart and soul of America. Sadly, it will linger (as recent history has confirmed) as a burning candle near the powder keg of centuries-old hate that is our nation’s curse. In my opinion, this wound will never be healed and will continue to fester. Furthermore, the scab over the wound is thin, friable and easily pierced by anyone who dares address the relevant issues in frank terms.

Why is this so? Psychologists, sociologists, epidemiologists and haughty demagogues have ventured many theories but none seem adequate. Clearly, no one has provided hints at a cure: a miraculous antibiotic that will clear the purulent and noxious poisons that prevent ultimate mending. What are the causes for continued racial hostilities in America? They are many and varied.

First, I believe that the racial inequities that were allowed to persist 100 years after the abolition of slavery in America - disparities in education, income and status - are still a problem. Only after the 1960s and the efforts of Martin Luther King and others to force the white community to face the inequities head on was any attempt made to at move forward. And, sadly, those efforts were usurped (after Dr. King’s assassination) and, ultimately, neutralized, by self-appointed and self-interested "leaders" in the black community.

These "pretenders" to replace the fallen King were more interested in propping themselves up before the black community and self-aggrandizement that they were in actually changing the racial climate in America. As a result, these pseudo-leaders were content to allow liberal white politicians and academics to implement policies (racial quotas, affirmative action, etc) to become policy in academia and in the workplace. In the long-term, these policies were not only counterproductive in achieving the goal of improving the state of the black citizens they, ultimately, fostered increased white animosity and ill will.

Secondly, governmental programs that widened the "welfare state" - cloaked as a futile effort at reparations for the past wrongs of slavery (and a ineffectual balm to the growing sense of "white guilt") has given root to a pervasive feeling of entitlement within minority communities. Dependency on governmental subsidies has stunted the black communities’ initiative and their efforts to develop community-based economies. While there have been a few scattered pleas for black self-sufficiency (principally from the controversial Louis Farrakan), they have not found a lasting home in the consciousness of the black community.

Finally, and irrefutably, there is continued racial bigotry within the white community. That it exist is not in question. However, it has transmogrified from the overt hostility of the pre-Civil Rights era to a more subtle but no less detrimental form. As described by University of Connecticut professor Jack Dovidio, who has studied racism for more than 30 years, estimates up to 80 percent of white Americans have racist feelings they may not even recognize.

He was quoted by CNN as saying: "We've reached a point that racism is like a virus that has mutated into a new form that we don't recognize." He added that 21st-century racism is different from that of the past: "Contemporary racism is not conscious, and it is not accompanied by dislike, so it gets expressed in indirect, subtle ways".

Instead of cross burnings, lynching, and conscious discrimination, modern racial bigotry has become "stealth," hard to detect and difficult to quantify. For example, again from the CNN article, "A three-year undercover investigation by the National Fair Housing Alliance found that real estate agents steered whites away from integrated neighborhoods and steered blacks toward predominantly black neighborhoods." That’s subtle, unrecognizable but no less damaging.

So what is the answer? If Great Britain - which banned slavery a mere 50 years (1807) before the U.S. - has managed to make quantum leaps ahead of this country in racial harmony and tolerance - why do we continue to fight the same battles endlessly? Perhaps, in 50 years, we too can laugh at a monkey puppet pantomiming a black entertainer. But, in my opinion, we are not at that point in our painful and slow evolution. I think the answer lies somewhere within the comments quoted from one contributor to the CNN report, Blair Williams, an immigrant from Trinidad now living in South Carolina, who said:

"I think that the issue is twofold. I believe that white America's perception of blacks is still generally negative based on their limited interaction with blacks, whether this is via the media or in person. On the other hand, black Americans need to stop devaluing themselves and their people. Another race can only respect you if you respect yourself and currently, I find that blacks still devalue and disgrace each other and themselves."

As Mr. Williams points out, mutual (interracial)and self (intraracial) respect are the starting points. Without these two simple but elusive components, we will remain in the social tar pit of racial bigotry and racism. And the continued silliness of "political correctness," feigned indignation solely for political gain over trivial (in the grand scheme of things) transgressions and discussion that take place with more concern for using the right language than sharing ideas will continue to dominant our social and political discourse. It is frank, honest discussions that we desperately need and when we all wear kid gloves and remain perpetually tongue-tied, these exchanges are impossible. Without putting aside our obsession with ancient grievances and generational prejudices, we will continue our petty bickering and fail to bridge the racial divide.

And the beat goes on and on and on.