Bill Ayers has another book coming

Last week, at the Sandi Wisenberg–curated Writers for Obama event, the great statesman of Chicago independent publishing, Dr. Haki Madhubuti mentioned that his Third World Press had a new book prepped for the fall that it had to postpone until the Spring. The reason? It's a new release from William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn, currently the only thing the McCain campaign can talk about. Ayers, of course, is the former member of the Weather Underground who, some 20-plus years after being engaged in the radical group became a major figure in Chicago school reform. Barack Obama served on a board with him, which ipso facto means he cannot possibly be president.

The new book by the couple is called Race Course: Against White Supremacy. Madhubuti said he'd contracted the book from the two over a year ago, but they soon realized that releasing it in the fall "would cause too much trouble for Barack." Of course, the book is against white supremacy, which would presumably be a fairly non-controversial topic. But given that there are even whackadoo notions out there now that Ayers wrote Obama's Dreams of My Father, anything the UIC professor writes now will be scrutinized and projected onto Obama. Also, now that the McCain campaign has unleashed persistent claims that Rep. John Lewis played the race card when he raised questions about "off with his head"–shouting, and monkey-stroking Obama-haters at McCain/Palin rallies, it's probably not a bad idea to hold off on another Ayers book until after January 20. According to the book's description: "Arguing that white supremacy has been the dominant political system in the United States since its earliest days—and that it is still very much with us—the discussion points to unexamined bigotry in the criminal justice system, election processes, war policy, and education. The book draws upon the authors' own confrontations with authorities during the Vietnam era, reasserts their belief that racism and war are interwoven issues, and offers personal stories about their lives today as parents, teachers, and reformers."

As for the event, Wisenberg reports that it raised a little over $6,300 for the Obama campaign, and people can still donate if they wish.