Racism exists; there is no question in my mind that this statement is true. However, I believe people of all color, creed and background sometimes use it as a means to distract others from a totally unracist action.
According to an NBC affiliate's story in Atlanta, U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), punched a security officer in the chest with her cellphone in her hand. Her reason for the alleged assault, in the words of a statement released on her behalf -

"I was rushing to my meeting when a white police officer yelled to me. He approached me, bodyblocked me, physically touching me. I used my arm to get him off of me. I told him not to touch me several times. He asked for my ID and I showed it to him. He then let me go and I proceeded to my meeting and I assume that the Police Officer resumed his duties. I have counseled with the Sergeant-at-Arms and Acting Assistant Chief Thompson several times before and counseled with them again on today's incident. I offered also to counsel with the offending police officer."

Why did the Congresswoman need to bring up the security guard's race? Why did she have to do it so high up in her statement? She tries to immediately distract the public, the very same public who elected her because they thought they could trust her, by pulling out the race card.
Representative McKinney is black, I bring this up only because she brings up the security guard was white. Why did she bring up the security guard's race? Although she did not admit to punching the guard, the article states that witnesses saw her punching him:

Witnesses say McKinney pulled her arm away, and with her cell phone in hand, punched the officer in the chest.

It seems to me that the U.S. representative is trying to use the race of the white guard to excuse her actions. The race of the other individual is completely irrelevant...and yet she brings it up again and again.
For example, according to the NBC's affiliate's story:

The statement's writer says that she has been harassed by white police officers she says do not recognize her due to her recently changed hairstyle.
"Do I have to contact the police every time I change my hairstyle? How do we account for the fact that when I wore my braids every day for 11 years, I still faced this problem, primarily from certain white police officers," the statement says.

Congresswoman McKinney ought to be ashamed of herself for seeing our society as black and white as opposed to as a collection of human beings all working together to form a better place.
The people of her district ought to use their power of not reelecting a person who focuses too much on the color of someone's skin and not enough on finding solutions to her district's and nation's problems.