When future historians dissect the press coverage of the first black person to run as the presidential nominee of a major party, they will surely marvel at all the linguistic acrobatics and patronizing euphemisms. There are exceptions, of course, and today’s New York Times features a welcome break from vague racial speculation with a thoughtful, well-researched report on racial prejudice in rural Pennsylvania. Journalist Michael Powell hits the problems that many reporters are afraid to touch, largely because he did enough homework to ensure that the article enables voters to tell the story themselves:

In Raccoon, Kelly Dobbins, a middle-aged factory worker, offered the same [view as another voter]: