The Trayvon Martin case has achieved a lot when it comes to exposing how media works. Mindless, cannibalistic repetition, otherwise known as the news cycle, is only the beginning. Issues with framing, selective editing and word choice abound. Now, the tinkering with the 9-1-1 call Zimmerman made before the event and the video that shows him entering a police precinct somewhat resemble the evidence tampering following the JFK assassination.

However, there is a problem that's much more profound than these and from which the current hoopla stems: The media and the nation are ill-prepared to discuss race.

In what could only be called serendipitous timing, author, investigative journalist and co-host ofDemocracy Now!, Juan González visited UT on Monday, April 2, to talk about his new book, News for All the People.

In his presentation, González said the media's interests are in the wrong place: "The press has failed the people because they're more concerned about making money." During the Q&A session, González was asked about the Trayvon Martin case. "I think it has definitely re-ignited the discussion about race," said González.

"The whole thing about living in a post-racial world has been clarified. I think the Tea Party and cases like this have shown that the idea is illusory. We still have a long way to go when it comes understanding racial issues in this country."

Sadly, González was right. A post-racial era is a chimerical idea that should have no place in discussions in or out of academia, it furthers the existing problem of ignorance by taking importance away from race. Most whites still lack an understanding of ingrained racial inequities and thus fail to see any reason for concern until something like the Trayvon Martin case explodes all over the news.

According to scholar Garrett Duncan, members of the dominant society "connect black skin to fecklessness, promiscuity, physical deformity, violence, and dishonesty. . .[These] are evident attitudes that still persist today." He's right, but no one wants to accept responsibility for those attitudes because most folks are under the impression that ignoring race qualifies them as not racist. Unfortunately, ignoring something does not make it go away.

While the tragedy occurred in Florida, the death of Trayvon Martin quickly has become a local matter. A rally in support of Martin and his family was scheduled to take place on Tuesday, March 27, at the gates of the Texas State Capitol. On the same day, The Daily Texan published a cartoon that immediately began making headline news across the country.

In the aftermath, cartoonist Stephanie Eisner was no longer part of the paper, the Editorial Board had published an apology full of promises and Doug Warren, the newspaper’s editorial adviser, had written an editorial stating the cartoon was not inherently racist. All three things are problematic and point to different symptoms of the nation's inadequacy in terms on racial awareness.

The Editorial Board's apology painstakingly included every politically correct thing it could have mentioned. From assuring readers they will work to "raise consciousness of race and diversity both at the Texan and on campus" to saying they will require all Daily Texan employees "to participate in a seminar each semester about the relationship between race and the media." The apology read like a textbook example of a goodwill-generating letter and should be used to teach public relations.

What the apology failed to address was how many students laid eyes on the cartoon before it was published and how not one of them found it offensive. It was also unsuccessful in explaining how no one noticed Trayvon's name was misspelled.

As for Eisner losing her job as cartoonist, I have to concur with Doug Warren on the fact that college is a place where you're entitled to make mistakes. After all, mistakes are an inherent component of the learning process. Similarly, I echo CultureMap Austin's Editor in Chief Kevin Benz's thoughts, which he shared in an opinion column, that we "may choose to disagree with the opinion, we may even be offended, but the point is good editorial opinion makes us react and think, and that is never a bad thing." Eisner and Warren are white and products of the current system. And that's precisely where things start to get even more complicated.

The cartoon that appeared on The Daily Texan was not evil or racist on purpose, it was so because it was unbelievably ignorant. A few people looked at the cartoon before it was published, and not one of them had an issue with the word "colored" or the word "boy," which also has a long history of racial connotations.

Furthermore, for Warren, who should have a better, more educated perspective than the students that run the paper, the presence of the two words did not make the cartoon inherently racist.

While the word colored might not seem racist to whites, it definitely carries a different meaning to those whose skin is of a different color. That lack of understanding puts whites in a disadvantaged position when it comes to discussing race and judging whether a cartoon, comment, word or opinion column will be offensive to that racial Other. Otherness is still a big mystery to most people.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond said it best in 2003: "Whether race is a burden or a benefit is all the same to the race-neutral theorists; that is what they mean when they speak of being colorblind, all right — blind to the consequences of being the wrong color in America today." Unless you are that wrong color, your understanding of what it means to be an African American or a Latino in the U.S. will not be completely accurate.

Scholar and professor Makungu Akinyela posts that the media's position in culture is one of power, “Hegemony is enforced primarily through the institutions of civil society, which are the cultural institutions, such as churches, social clubs, sororities/fraternities, educational institutions, artistic institutions, print and electronic media, and private enterprises.” In this country, hegemony is white. At UT, it's the same white hegemony that keeps women from getting tenure and African American and Latino women in even more depressing percentages.

How can The Daily Texan pretend to be diverse when, according to the official numbers provided by the Office of Information Management and Analysis, African Americans represent only 4.6 percent of all students at UT?

The media has turned the Trayvon Martin case into a racial issue, but the result is a circular discussion about whether Zimmerman was a racist or not. There are a lot of complaints about racism out there right now, but very few calls for more education, no opinion pieces about how most of the universities that prepare our future journalists are intrinsically racist even today and not enough articles about how hegemony plays a major role in the way things are covered (not that I expected mainstream media to do it!).

What we need is an open discussion that brings forth real understanding, not a fake post-racial attitude that comes crashing down when something like the Martin case comes along. We need to understand that the issue of what's being said in the media is tied to the issue of who's doing the saying.

Bigotry is alive and well, but we won't get rid of it by pointing an accusatory finger at the media or by firing Eisner. The way we get rid of bigotry is by educating people and reporting with bias. Yes, with bias. The no bias thing has failed horribly and not talking about race is not the answer. Labeling a gentrification story "advocacy journalism" is not the answer. The role of journalism is to give everyone a voice.

If people can believe in a post-racial era, they can probably believe in fair reporting, better education and working toward understanding race. With understanding, there won't be a need for censorship, backlash or apologies.

Racism is embedded in our culture, but removing taboos and speaking about race openly might be the tool that allows us to yank it out of the media and our universities. I hope you're all up to the challenge.