The Daily Caller reports that a government-funded study by the New York University psychology department concluded that conservatives are more likely to be racist than liberals. Why? Because, reporter Robby Soave writes, “Mixed-race people are more likely to be considered black by conservatives, who are subconsciously attempting to ‘justify racial divisions.’”

Maybe that is empirically correct. But I know of at least one prominent liberal to has identified a “mixed-race” person as black: President Barack Obama. On his 2010 Census form he described himself as black only, even though the Census form allows you to specify more than one race, as several million people do. But not Obama, who first came to national attention, in his 17-minute speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, when he proclaimed himself the product of the “improbable” union of a man from Kenya and a woman from Kansas.
 
That struck me as a little offputting. But I certainly wouldn’t say that the president is a racist. I’ll leave that to the folks at NYU.