At a family backyard gathering in one of the city's more upscale neighborhoods, there was a conversation about the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant that opened on the corner of University Avenue and Culver Road.

One middle-aged white man said to another that he didn't mind the new KFC, but he was concerned about the "demographics" a place like that will bring to "this side of town."

Former President Jimmy Carter is coming under fire for comments he made about the tone of the resistance to some of President Obama's policies. Carter says racism is still alive and well in America, and Obama is a target of it.

He's right on both points.

Carter's concerns have caused a firestorm of protests among the cable talk show hosts. The left, they say, has stooped to playing the race card. Bush, they argue, is still being called a liar, among other things. So, Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during Obama's speech shouldn't be overblown, and didn't stem from racism.

But people of almost any minority group will tell you that discrimination is multilayered. Take, for example, the intricate coded speech.

It may go unchallenged, but it doesn't go unnoticed; we all know what a word like "demographics" can mean.

Obama is a target. Since he was elected into office, the White House reports there has been a 400-percent increase in the number of physical threats against this president compared to his predecessors.

The Southern Poverty Law Center also reports a marked increase in the number of hate groups that have formed since Obama took office.

Conservatives argue that liberals are not getting the true meaning of the recent protests by people like the Tea Party members. It's Obama's policies they say they're rejecting; not Obama's race.

But it's hard to get that message when you see him depicted on signs and websites as a monkey or dressed as a tribesman, complete with feathers and bone necklaces.

It's reminiscent, on a smaller scale, of the county executive race when former city Mayor Bill Johnson was running against Maggie Brooks.

At a cocktail party in the suburbs, one young woman said there was no way "that" man would ever be elected county executive.

She never said that "black" man, but several of us filled in the blank.