When Martin Luther King dreamed of the day when our children would not be known by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, he was re-expressing the brilliant but unrealized dreams of Genesis 1 — that each of us is an Eikon of God, the table fellowship practices of Jesus, and the magna carta of the apostle Paul — that there is neither Jew nor Greek in Christ.

Those committed to those biblical visions and Dr. King’s re-expression, not to mention the inherent rights of the citizenship through our Constitution, are prohibited from racial profiling. Including our President, who seems in this case to have overstepped reason to perform a case of reverse racial profiling, for he seems to have given preferential treatment to an African American friend before he knew the facts. In the process, he seems to have prejudiced the case.

Some Republicans have been grousing about the “beer summit” for distracting the President from more important matters seem to be guilty of a case of “ideologuing” (no word but it might work here). Talk about racial profiling. Pray tell, what can be more important that racism in the USA? It’s got to be at the top of our lists of national and international concerns. If it takes beer summits to shed light on racial problems, then pour a Boddington for me. Anyone who thinks the beer summit distracts from important subjects needs a slow course on racism.

But, I have to say that President Obama’s regrets didn’t go far enough for me. He said that, had he known more, he might have recalibrated what he said. “Recalibrated”? C’mon. We need more than that. Had he known the facts he wouldn’t have said what he did. In fact, knowing President Obama as we do, he’d have said something completely different. He’s looked back on this one, and he knows what he’ll say next time and it will more than recalibrate what he said this time. 

Which is precisely the point in this whole fiasco. The genuinely teachable moment we needed from President Obama and his vision for a post-racial America (think Genesis 1, Jesus, and Martin Luther King) was to step back, discover all the facts, and demonstrate that an African American and biracial President can render wisdom when the heat flares. Wisdom that will help each of us.