Pulitzer winner: America still sees in black and white.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran May 15, 2007): The Register-Guard is not among the daily newspapers in the country that currently publish syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts. A story in Friday's paper misstated where Pitts' column appears.

Americans view racism much like they do a traffic accident, newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts said Thursday in Eugene.

"We want to look and not look at the same time," he said. "There's a desire to know but also a fear of talking about it. There are things people don't want to know because it hurts too much."

Pitts brought his Pulitzer Prize-winning credentials to town to deliver the annual Ruhl Lecture - presented each year by a noted journalist - at the University of Oregon. Race, Pitts said in his speech, is "the great conundrum of American existence."

The racist sentiments that percolate just under the surface of American life - such as the racial epithets directed at visiting black players and fans at a recent state basketball tournament in Eugene - are no surprise, Pitts said in an interview earlier in the day.

"Over the years, I'm finding people are getting more comfortable with their bigotry," he said. "I see it in my hate mail. Writers used to never sign their names because there used to be shame. Now they sign their names and sometimes even a phone number."

Pitts, 49, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004 for social commentary. The Miami Herald columnist is syndicated in about 150 newspapers across the country, including The Register-Guard.

In recent columns, Pitts has sought to explain why radio shock jock Don Imus lost his job over a racist comment - he was being a bully - and what it means that Barack Obama, who is black, is the only presidential aspirant to ask for and receive Secret Service protection.

Pitts touches on many topics besides race, but is still widely viewed as a black journalist whose writings are alternately critiqued as "too black" or "not black enough." Pitts said he is struck by how often readers - especially white readers - feel obliged to tell him their race.

"People are so surprised they can relate to me," he said. "I am more than black, but people identify me by that one dimension alone."

Pitts once wrote a column confessing to being a chocoholic. A woman contacted him afterward and said, "I'm white, and I like chocolate, too!"

Many Americans don't feel able to talk about race for fear of offending, said Pitts, who often publicizes a Web site - www.yforum.com - where people of different races and religions can ask questions of each other without fear of embarrassment or ostracism. The Web site is the brainchild of a white journalist, Phil Milano of the Florida Times-Union.

Among the questions Pitts said the forum has fielded over the years:

Is it true black people have an extra muscle in their calves?

Is it true you can tell the nationality of an Asian by the slant of their eyes?

Why do whites seem to spend so much time on lawn care?

While it's easy to mock such questions, they point to the deep-seated stereotypes Americans have of one another, Pitts said.

Many white Americans, he said, are perplexed by a double standard in society that allows, for example, a Miss Black America pageant but not a Miss White America pageant.

"It all comes down to power and lack of power," he said. "Everything changes when you don't have the power and you're vulnerable. It's why we can have a movie called `White Men Can't Jump' but not one called `Black Men Can't Swim.' '

Prior to winning his Pulitzer Prize, Pitts was best known for a race-transcending column published the day after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The column, an angry and defiant open letter to the terrorists, circulated the globe via the Internet and generated more than 30,000 e-mail responses. It has since been set to music, read aloud on TV and radio, and reprinted as a poster.

Pitts said he is proud of the column but "shocked, surprised and furious" at where the United States finds itself six years later, mired in a war in Iraq that had nothing to do with those responsible for the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"It's been a disaster of galactic proportions," said Pitts, displaying a small digital clock attached to his key chain that marks off the days - 620 and counting as of Thursday - when President Bush's successor will be inaugurated.

Prior to column-writing, Pitts was employed as the Miami Herald's pop music critic. Pitts said he grew bored with much of the music scene - and doesn't believe it's merely because he got older. He holds rap music in particularly low esteem.

"They exploit inner-city violence and misogyny and homophobia - this cartoon of black life," he said. "I consider the majority of rappers to be Uncle Toms, and I don't use that term lightly. I've heard that rap sales are going down, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving genre."