How about that father? He was on 20/20 last week saying how he "listened to his daughter" as if others don't. Complete ahole who is lucky she is alive.

Joey got us off topic here. The issue is not a color issue it is a gender issue and it is real. As someone who daily sees girls outperforming boys you have to ask what is going on. If 60% of college grads are girls you can fully expect that the future for men is bleaker than the past. I'm happy that girls are doing well. I'm upset that something we are doing as a society is failing boys.

Rupert -- the idea is not to say that there is no chance for minorities to be successful, or to deny the fact that we have come a long way.

But to deny the fact that there are still a boatload of inherent advantages in being born a white male is simply ridiculous. Just because we've got a black president and Tiger Woods got famous doesn't mean it's all of the sudden a level playing field and by and large across society minorities are not still underprivileged and disavantaged, and that the advantages white men are born with have somehow disappeared.

It's a more level playing field than it once was, but it's a hilariously privileged assertion (always made, unsurprisingly, by white men themselves. Go figure) that somehow being a white man just ain't what it used to be and that's it's actually a disadvantage of some kind.

I'll bet that if you did a poll today amongst minorities that are in their 20s and 30s that went to good schools and that are successful, I'll bet that a high percentage of them (maybe 50%) would tell you that being a minority did not hurt them.

Minorities are excelling in all areas.

If you lined up 10 six-year old kids of all races in front of me and asked me to predict which ones would be the most successful, I would make my predictions based mainly on what kind of familes these kids came from. If you had a black kid from a middle-class family with good parents, I think he would have a better chance of being successful than a white kid who lived in a trailer park whose parents were drug addicits. If you have a black kid whose dad is a 22 year old gang member vs an Asian kid whose dad is a doctor, I think there is a better chance that the Asian kid would be successful.

I think that race would play a very minor role. Do you think race is more important than what type of parents a kid has?

Rupert..fortunately, that is your opinion and it's the right one. But I know you are worldly, or at least know that the South isn't as much, to realize that ain't what happens out there. If you are born Black in the US you will be proving yourself the whole way...obviously it doesn't mean you won't be a success...whatever that means...but you will NEVER be given the free pass that whities are.

I can't pretend to know exactly what things are like in the South. I have never lived there. I have lived in Los Angeles my whole life.

I'm sure every state is a little different and race may play more of a role in certain states, but overall I think everyone has a fair shake right now in the US.

I have a question for you. Do you think being half-black helped Obama or hurt him? All things being the same, do you think he would have gotten more votes or less votes if he was white?

That's a fair question. Look..I liked Obama before anyone had heard of him and I still do. I think a Liberal wins that election unless his name is Dukakais. But the only reason he may have got more votes because he was black is because he actually got blacks to get out and vote. But isn't that the point?

I think being black helped him overall. It may have cost him some votes in the south but I think it really helped him with young people. Young people were extremely excited about Obama. He had an almost "rock-star" type of appeal. I think part of that was due to his race. As I said earlier, I think that being a minority is considered "cool" by young people.

I think being someone not named Bush, who didn't want to force their religion down our throats and who didn't start a war because he was to weak to say no Cheney and because he a freakin smart guy is was what got him elected. Because he was black is like saying that Ron Guidry won 23 games because he was a lefty.

I'm not saying he won because he was black. I'm not saying that at all. I'm simply saying that being black didn't hurt him and overall it may have slightly helped him.

And I'm saying that blacks not named Obama don't have an equal chance as whites do. And you disagree...let's leave it at at that...cool?

Cool.

Thankfully, your statement here regarding what constitutes "history" in the academy is completely false.