“For an hour, I forgot he was black.”

These were the sentiments expressed by MSNBC host Chris Matthews a few weeks ago, after watching President Obama’s State of the Union address. According to foxnews.com, Matthews said, “I was trying to think about who he was tonight. And uh, it’s interesting. He is post-racial, by all appearances. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour. I was watching, I said, Wait a minute! He is an African-American guy in front of a bunch of other white people and there he is president of the United States and we have completely forgotten that tonight — completely forgotten it!”

Matthews was almost immediately slammed for the words, “I forgot he was black tonight for an hour.” Hundreds of people began questioning the meaning and intent of his words, and responses have not been favorable. One asked if Matthews meant that Obama looked light-skinned. Another insisted that Matthews meant that he did not think African-Americans are capable of giving good speeches. Another said that Matthews did not forget Obama was black, Matthews forgot that Matthews was white.

While justified, these assumptions and accusations are also a bit unfair. This one questionable-sounding phrase came amidst Matthews’ talk about how much Obama has done to heal racial rifts in the country, and how impressed he was that for once, he felt race dropped out of the matter entirely and that people were just listening to Obama as the nation’s leader.

Should Matthews have said that remark, especially the way he said it? No. It was insensitive-sounding and it does raise the question of whether or not Matthews has some racial prejudices. However, his remarks surrounding that statement, as well as his explanations afterward, show pretty clearly that he was simply trying to say something positive.

It is certainly no secret that racism is a huge problem in our society today. Racism has been a huge factor in Obama’s presidency from the moment he began running for the position. I have no doubt that some people did not vote for him because he was black and that others did vote for him because he was black. Some, I hope, did the proper thing and voted for him based on his policies. But in any election, we all know how rare that is. Like it or not, race has been a discussion in Obama’s presidency from the beginning.

I do not think this is right. A true absence of racism would mean that nobody considered skin color at all, in any situation. However, we are not there yet and we have quite a ways to go until we are. I believe that Matthews’ comments, while sounding questionable, were really just his attempt to express his pleasure that, for once, he saw an instance of going beyond that. Obama was simply Obama, exactly the way it should be. Instead of spending all our time slamming him for not expressing himself in the most sensitive and correct way, we should at least appreciate his sincerity and pleasure in what he saw as a glimmer of a hopeful future.