I think Herman Cain discusses the question of race where it concerns economic opportunity most admirably in his interview yesterday with CNN’s Candy Crowley. When Crowley asked Cain if blacks have a level playing field with whites he replied:

Many of them do. Many of them do have a level playing field. I absolutely believe that because, not only because of the businesses I have run which has had a combination of blacks, whites, Hispanics, you know, we had a total diversity. But also because of the corporations whose boards I’ve served on for the past twenty years. I have seen blacks in middle management move up to top management in some of the biggest corporations in America. They weren’t held back because of racism. No! People sometimes hold themselves back because they want to use racism as an excuse for them not being able to achieve what they want to achieve.

Now I realize Cain took some heat for his row with Rick Perry concerning his family’s hunting camp not so long ago. But if you consider with which Cain spoke about the need for people in his own community to not to use race as a crutch and accept individual responsibility then I would say he did more to advance the “national conversation on race” in two minutes than what Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the NAACP have done over the past 25 years.