Story highlights Peniel Joseph: Race matters shaped a scintillating portion of first presidential debate

Clinton countered Trump's racial blind spots by calmly discussing institutional racism, he says

Peniel Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Political Values and Ethics and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor of history. He is the author of several books, most recently "Stokely: A Life." The views expressed here are his.

(CNN) Race matters shaped a riveting portion of the first presidential debate Monday night between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump at Hofstra University. In a lengthy exchange over the spate of videotaped police shootings of black people in America -- and the roots of the birther movement questioning President Barack Obama's citizenship -- the candidates made a series of fascinating statements.

Trump reiterated his support for "law and order," once again characterizing America's inner-cities as forgotten places filled with murder, poverty and miserable blacks who have been abandoned by politicians. But his description of the black community sidestepped the way in which his own political rhetoric has contributed to the nation's growing racial divide. Its promotion of a brand of racial anxiety, fear and anger have turned his campaign into a galvanizing movement for racial intolerance.

In fact, his Janus-faced stance on racial justice has helped normalize the notion of white supremacy in contemporary American politics.

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Still, the very fact that moderator Lester Holt confronted both candidates on the state of race relations signals how important this issue has become in 2016, with Americans searching for a way out of a national impasse.

And so, Trump, the same candidate who has been endorsed by virtually every police union in America for his "law and order" stance , has proclaimed his support for black communities demonized by mass incarceration and racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. And he did this again Monday night.

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