Emily Gordon notes this passage in Salon today:

Still, at times Obama seemed to have the best of both worlds, politically: The self-confidence that comes from being raised (and loved, intimately, from Day One) by the white majority, while also being protected from any perceptible threat of racism by black and white supporters admirably determined to identify and crush it when it surfaced….

Historians may find that this double force field protected Obama; certainly, we saw it in the primaries, when anything that could be remotely perceived as a racial diss to Obama, by the Clintons, their supporters or the media, ignited a firestorm and damaging charges of racism against whomever slurred — or simply slipped — in their treatment of the black Democratic candidate. I enjoyed the anti-racist media strikeforce when it hit Fox News for its idiotic “slips” labeling Barack and Michelle’s affectionate fist-bump a possible “terrorist” gesture, and describing Obama’s wife of 16 years as his “baby mama.” I liked it much less when it was directed at outlets I respect, like the New Yorker (or Salon). I still can’t believe the backlash against the New Yorker’s hilarious (in my opinion) fist-bump cover, sending up all the right wing’s dumbest, least believable slurs against Michelle and Barack Obama. His supporters howled with outrage, and his campaign bit back, too, with even Obama himself lamenting that the cartoon might be misunderstood by confused voters.