Not racist: The media pointlessly obsessing over the skin tone of Republican governor and Indian-American Bobby Jindal—although the jury was out on whether he was “moderately dark-skinned” (The Associated Press) or just plain old “dark-skinned” (The LA Times).
Racist: Republican Senate candidate George Allen calling a liberal heckler a “macaca.” This is supposedly a disparaging term for blacks in Europe—although no American had ever heard the word, much less been insulted by it. Oh, and the heckler was Indian, not black.
As we can see, the liberal criteria for “racist” depends not on what a person says and does, but whom they associate with. If you have an “R” after your name, you’re a bigot. If you have a “D” after your name, you can praise former Klansmen, publicly obsess over your opponents’ skin tone, and drone on about “negro dialects.” And when it comes to especially hated Republicans like Condi Rice, you can even use the n-word.
It’s all good.