Remember when Bill Clinton was attacked viciously for trying his National Conversation on Race?

It's clear that this country's PATHOLOGICAL inability to seriously discuss race, religious diversity, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity et all invariably contributes to these kind of incidents.
And then you have a lot of talking heads sitting around expressing shock. "How could this happen here in 2009?"
Well, when you've never seriously dealt with the underlying issues, why would you be shocked? Even on DU, where the issues are discussed far more often than in American society at large, there's often kneejerk denial.
The company I worked for after I graduated from college had employees take part in an extensive three-day diversity workshop (covering racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism), which they spent quite a bit of money on. It was at times tense, there were lots of tears, there was anger, there was joy etc etc - but people discussed issues, some of which they'd never really dealt with before. And no, it didn't create instant "Heal the World" harmony, but participants gained a new perspective on a whole lot of things, and many of us kept meeting to talk long after the workshop ended.
And Clinton's national conversation plan wasn't perfect, but it was a start - kudos to him for recognizing that it was necessary. But Newt and the Right-Wing Noise machine shouted it into oblivion, just like they did Hillary's health care initiative.
I've always said that the end of the United States would not come from an external invader, but from internal collapse, including its inability to successfully manage its diversity.

and this is on all sides.

I'm glad the idea that's important is getting traction, its real form of discrimination that has almost never been discussed. I also think its more prevalent in these times than previous times in US history.

Not really, when was that? Seems the campaign for president last year that lead to Barack Obama's election was definitely a national conversation on race. At least for most folks.