Well, black folks -- how do you like your precious Democrats now?

After years of black leaders ranting that the Republicans belong to a white man’s party, it would seem there are some white Democrats who can’t resist the urge to get in touch with their inner white supremacist.

Oh, you know who I’m referring to. One Geraldine Ferraro, former member of the House of Representatives and vice-presidential candidate, who had this to say about Sen. Barack Obama’s frontrunner status in his run for the presidency: “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman of any color, he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country’s caught up in the concept.”

Ferraro fired off that salvo when she had a fundraising position in Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign, a job she no longer holds. Clinton gave her the boot when many blacks protested Ferraro’s racially charged remarks. By contrast, Ferraro tried to defend her nonsense.

“What it is, it’s a historic candidacy,” Ferraro said in news reports about Obama’s quest for the White House. “I should think he would celebrate the fact that black voters in this country are so excited that this is a groundbreaking thing that he would not comment on it. It wasn’t a racist comment. It was a comment, a statement of fact. And for the (Obama) campaign to take that and spin it and attack Hillary and me as being racist, I have to tell you, it is just appalling.”

I don’t know about you, but I tend to worry about people who equate their opinions with statements of fact. Ferraro worries me for another reason: She may claim she’s not a racist, but that doesn’t mean she’s not in touch with her inner white supremacist.

Let me explain what I mean.

There can be very well meaning, liberal white folks who are fervently, almost fanatically, against racism. They’re all for open housing laws, for blacks moving in next door and integrating the ‘hood, maybe wouldn’t even mind if their son or daughter had a black spouse. But when it comes time to admitting that a black person is better than a white person at anything other than playing basketball or music, then the words get stuck in their throats.

I’ll be clearer.

Would it have killed Ferraro to simply say “Obama’s in the position he’s in because he’s run a better campaign than Hillary?" Because that's what the truth is. Obama’s campaign has been nothing short of brilliant. Clinton’s has been a disaster. If she’d run a campaign half as good as Obama’s, she’d have the nomination locked up by now.

This business of the reluctance of some white folks to say Black Person A does something better than White Person B is not new. It’s as old as the other resort of whites afflicted with a white supremacist mentality: If you can’t deny black excellence, try to claim the blacks showing excellence do it because of their white blood.

Oh, I think Ferraro wanted to go there, but she didn’t dare. But we’ve seen it before, haven’t we? Haven’t we all read the biography of Frederick Douglass by some white historian who spent a little bit too much time letting readers know that Douglass’ father was, supposedly, a white man?

Haven’t we all read those historical accounts of the West African empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai in which white historians suggest that the black folks who built them weren’t “Negroes” at all, but really kind of Caucasian?

White Democrats have said and done what blacks consider the “right thing” in racial matters for years. But it takes a slip like the one Ferraro made for us to realize that there remain white Democrats who, deep down, are uncomfortable with black folks actually being leaders in the party. How else could we account for Clinton winning primaries in those states where only Democrats can vote for Democrats, while Obama has won those where independents could vote in Democratic primaries?

There are indeed a lot of whites who are voting for and feeling Obama, but many of them are not Democrats. For the most part, white Democrats are voting the way they’ve always voted: For the white candidate.

So, black folks, how do you like your precious Democrats now?