Update: Senator Barack Obama released a statement on this issue denouncing minister Farrakhan.

Last week the issue of race opened up in the Democratic contest and today Richard Cohen offers us a glimpse on how it might take shape in editorial pieces and in the public discourse. In his latest Washington Post column Cohen notes that Obama is a member of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. That church recently gave an award to Louis Farrakhan.

Farrakhan is head of the Nation of Islam and is seen by many as a figure of racism. Farrakhan has made endless statements against people of Jewish descent and has talked of “jewish conspiracies” and questioned aspects of the Holocaust giving blame for the slaughter to Jews themselves. Cohen notes that there is nothing to show that Obama shares the beliefs of Farrakhan, but that the candidate hasn’t publicly denounced or questioned the award either.

Cohen believes that Obama should take a clear stand on the issue.

In March of 2007 Farrakhan spoke about Obama to ABC News saying:

“If avoiding me would help him to become president, I’d be glad to stay in the background, because of the taint that’s on the minister,” he said.

But, he added, “I haven’t made myself available to him … [and] he hasn’t made himself available to me.”

Larger than one journalist or opinionmaker it is a sign that there is more about Senator Obama as a person and a thinker that we as the voting public are not aware of and will undoubtedly come to inquire about in the next few months. Questions about his beliefs, his stances, his ideas about race relations and on social issues that might be important to some voters. This isn’t to say it will be all negative, in fact we may learn a great deal about the Senator that will endear him to the voting public. It is just to say he hasn’t faced the same level of public scrutiny as Clinton, Edwards, McCain, Giuliani or others running for president.

In many ways, Democrats who have used the race issue to hold Republicans accountable for their support of figures like Strom Thurmond and their accusations that the Bush administration had a racial agenda in ignoring victims of Hurricane Katrina, have welcomed such questions and accusations in the public discourse and undoubtedly this is just the beginning.