On November 17 The New York Times printed a mammoth "revelation" about Repr. J.C. Watts (R-OK). The 1991 story, long-settled in Mr. Watts's favor, nonetheless hopes to raise questions about Mr. Watt's character. Although the report made no mention of the fact that Mr. Watts was a candidate next day for the conference chair of House Republicans, the timing left no doubt about the purpose: to interfere with his election. Bad enough, but worse still is the interference with the American process of forming "a more perfect Union."

First a riddle: When I arrived on January 9th, 1959, in Tallahassee, Florida, the people called "Negroes" sat in the back of the bus, could not eat in a "normal" restaurant, and had their segregated drinking fountains as well as university. Yet no one spoke of America as a "racist" society.

Now, black Americans are in every possible sphere of life, in every conceivable position, on every conceivable economic level - all the way to the Supreme Court, super stardom, super riches. And - surprise - America is branded a racist society more times a day than pain reliever commercials are broadcast.

Explanation, anyone?

Perhaps the time has come for someone to define what a "racist" is. Since people's lives go down in flames when the epithet is attached, "I know it when I see it" just won't do. Those who charge "racism" should define it or desist from using it. If they don't, the word ought to be classified as hate speech, and the culprits prosecuted.

Of course, the people calling America racist make good money doing it. The reality nevertheless is that the effort of Americans to open every door for everyone has simply no equal in the annals of history. There is no place on Earth where people with black skin have - or could have - achieved that which so many have indeed achieved in America.

Success has been complete in the area of desegregation - the only condition open to legal remedy. Contrary to popular myth, integration is not a legal, but a delicate human process. Socialists believe that you can rearrange society according to a blueprint devised by theorists. But there are atavistic human attitudes toward those who are different, and only time and goodwill can overcome the obstacles. Yes, some of the obstacles reside in the souls of white-skinned people. But the proliferation among black Americans of a super-imposed, artificial African identity is an obstacle just the same, and so is the practice to chastise those who have succeeded in integrating themselves. The latter, too, flies in the face of reality: Ours is a society based on Anglo-American law and European culture. There is none other into which to integrate.

The New York Times article brings the ugly side of this issue in focus. As the Democratic Party and its press organs became increasingly captive to the European Socialist model, so they have sought to establish an exclusive claim to human decency in matters of race, thereby increasing - rather than decreasing - the divisions in our country. Their rhetoric caused not only a hardening separation between races, but new fissures within the races. Here is how it works.

The fact that Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, signed the Emancipation Proclamation has been wiped off the board along with the rest of America's true history. That permits dissemination of the myth that white Americans - all of whom are "born racists" of course - really divide into two types: Democrats who have successfully overcome their birth defect, and Republicans who won't even try. That particular lie promotes a division not only within white America, but separates blacks who are blinded by the propaganda from those who choose to believe their senses. We used to have two groups with a gradually softening divide between them. Now we have four groups, each with hardening edges.

Democrats also emphasize their continued support of (wholly unconstitutional) racial preference quotas, thereby sending the message to black Americans: "It's us, or you people will be on your own."

But the mask comes off when the chips are down. Every time Republicans are about to elevate someone with black skin to a leadership position, the disingenuousness of the other side is exposed. While they could not stop the appointment of Colin Powell, they turned the country upside-down to bar Clarence Thomas's way to the Supreme Court and now, realizing that the Republicans might actually do what Democrats merely speak about, sow the seeds of major doubt about the eligibility of another rising star with black skin.

What other lesson may be drawn but that Democrats see black people useful only so long as they keep their ears and eyes closed - a chorus of discontent and a voting block for Democratic politicians. What other lesson may be drawn but that The New York Times, sorely needed to be an American institution of unassailable integrity, is willing to turn into a party rag under the guise of "investigative journalism."

As they have done with every other facet of our national existence, socialists have converted race into political football. The result is that hypocrisy rules the actions taken in public, paralyzing the delicate process that occurs deep in the conscience of individuals.

Clarence Thomas sits on the Supreme Court, and J.C. Watts was elected to chair the Republican Conference. Will black Americans now begin to ignore the demagoguery and pay attention to reality?