I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the Civil Rights movement in this country. But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.

An honest statement to be sure. As a nation, we are struggling from a xenophobia similar to that following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. I personally was afraid to fly for years after 9-11-2001. Fortunately I had no requirements to fly, which allowed me to work through my fears long before I flew to South America last spring.

Fear is fear, and Juan Williams was just articulating his fear. So the greater question is, was Williams seeking to make irrational prejudice a basis for some type of discriminating action against Muslim Americans?

Or was his intent to acknowledge that fear has become an unwanted companion for many in our country?

Like the famous Shirley Sherrod quote, the above Juan Williams statement appears prejudicial. Yet in context, it is clear that Williams was attempting to acknowledge fears yet make a case against O’Reilley’s broadbrush painting of the 9/11 attack.

Clearly, as the conversation continued it is clear that Williams was challenging O’Reilley’s tendency to broadbrush, and not clarify. As MSNBC’s Morning Joe Scarborough explained, Juan Williams was being taken out of context.

I am now 62. In a way that I cannot explain, I know that I have been a passive participant in our nation’s struggle with racism. I understand the fear of those not like myself, much like President Obama’s beloved grandmother, whom he described as:

— a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

Fear is often irrational, and misdirected. President Obama understood that when he called the nation to face its demons and to seek a more perfect union, in his insightful Speech on Race. Speaking of people like his white grandmother, he explained:

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love. …

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through — a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

Mere political correctness is not the solution, as we saw in the handling of the Shirley Sherrod situation. We must start listening to one another. We must articulate our fears, even while we challenge the validity of our stereotypes. And in those few occasions when we are brave enough to do that, we should not fear for our jobs.

In this instance NPR has done nothing toward greater understanding between various cultures. They should have stood behind their employee and asked the offended viewers to consider the entire conversation.