This marks Crazy Cueball's second serious iReport. For the usual lame attempts at comedy, please look elsewhere.

As a middle-aged liberal white male, I thought I'd give my take on race relations in America. Just as no single African American speaks for all of black America, I don't pretend to believe that my thoughts are the same as those of all whites. However, I do believe that there are some fairly universal truths that I will attempt to outline.

White Americans feel horrible about our country's legacy of slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan and various other - and often more subtle - forms of active racial discrimination. We'd feel much better about our country if it were willing and able to elect an African American as President. Even if we don't vote for Barack Obama (I personally will be voting for him), we'd like to think that it's because of honest political disagreements rather than out of stereotypes or, worse yet, fear. Despite all of this, however, most white Americans don't feel personal guilt about crimes committed by our ancestors, and in particular are not in favor of making reparations for slavery. These events certainly happened and were horrible, but we feel no need to personally pay for the sins of people who died before we were born. I am also a German American. Similarly, while I condemn the Holocaust, I feel no personal responsibility for it.

White Americans genuinely like and admire many black Americans, from politicians such as Obama, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice to entertainment/sports figures such as Denzel Washington, Halle Barry and Tiger Woods. I think that we like these particular African Americans in part because they tend to not define themselves primarily by their skin color. We don't necessarily like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as their "blackness" seems to be what most defines them. Does this make us racists? I don't know - I'm just trying to be honest.

We're unintentionally ignorant of much of American history with regard to injustices committed against the black community. As a personal example, until recently I never understood why some mixed race people (eg, Obama, Barry) portray themselves as black rather than white or a mixture of both. I then learned of old beliefs such as the "one drop rule" and disturbing customs like "Octoroon Balls", and this made much more sense to me.

In summary, I think there's a fair amount of simple ignorance among white America regarding injustices committed against African Americans. I think most of us want to embrace the "melting pot" concept of America, and certainly to apply this to the black community as well. However, we don't feel the need to take personal blame for crimes committed by ancestors long dead, no matter how horrible these crimes in fact were.