@wundayatta My experience here in the midsouth during the presidential run was the people who brought up Obama being Muslim, were actually terrified he was Muslim. They may also have not liked he was black, but the two attributes were not synonomous. Not everyone freaked about him being supposedly being Muslim were necessarily worried about his skin color.
Sort of separate, but kind of on the same topic, I saw Sarah Palin a few days ago talking about someone else’s comment and she used “bless his heart” in her response. A southern way of saying that person is to be ignored, must be confused, and is an idiot. Palin is not a southerner, but that is speaking to her choir of course. So, I do agree that these candidates take on the language of their followers on purpose, and it is understood in a way that is not necessarily understood by other regions of the country. Ironically they all came after Hillary for speaking with a little bit of a southern accent while giving a speech in the south, but the woman actually lived in the south for many many years. But, I digress.
I actually consider my husband to be a different race, he is mostly Middle Eastern (Jewish) with some French and Spanish thrown in. People on fluther have given some good arguments to why there is not race, just the human race, but going with the way I typically categorize people, I would say he is a different race. He has a genetic disease that is typically carried by people who live along the mediterranean, he has black curly hair and olive skin. I don’t think white people of nordic or other northern european countries look at him and think he is white like me. So, I always found it odd that on most surveys he would be white. He is actually Hispanic (Mexican) white. And, in his country he would be considered white, but in his country I don’t think they ever ask race. But, I understand what you are saying.