“Black politics: Where to now?” read the top headline on today’s front page of the Post-Dispatch.

A couple readers wondered, rather strongly, where that headline was headed.

We received this email from a reader:

Subject: Black Politics Where to Now? WTF??

What’s next? A cover of Obama in black face?
So, you have a Black person running for the highest office in the nation and that’s the best that the paper can offer? Now it’s BLACK POLITICS and not a presidential race?
Gawd. Talk about setting folks back 200 years. It’s sad to think that folks are that friggin’ clueless and out of touch.

Where was the cover shouting White Politics during the last uh, 50 some odd elections?

A caller asked what we intended to accomplish by running that headline and story. Were we trying to stir racial tension?

Seems to me the analysis on race and politics was entirely legitimate. The headline captured the theme of the story, albeit in a terse tone. (Tomorrow we plan an A1 convention story on gender and politics.)

STLtoday’s headline on the same story — given the luxury of more space — does a much better job of relating the theme: “Obama’s historic rise has impact on civil rights struggle”