Have you heard the one about the mod coffee bar in Washington, D.C. with its latest offering?

It’s the Trent Latte, consisting of equal parts dark coffee and milk, served in separate but equal cups, allowing the customer to integrate them at will.

The powerful Republican’s fall from grace after a gaffe at Strom Thurmond’s birthday bash is little more than a hollow victory for those who pounced on his remarks. Lott commented that he was proud to have supported Thurmond’s 1948 bid for the presidency, one run on the segregationist ticket in a pre-civil rights solid South.

Moreover, he continued, with someone like Strom “Southern Manifesto” Thurmond in power, the U.S. wouldn’t be facing the problems it is today.

While much of the media eagerly decried Lott’s remarks and Republicans closed ranks against him, neither have discussed satisfactorily the many questions raised by Lott’s comments nor have they explored the more complex issue of lingering racial differences in this country being addressed.

By sealing Lott off from post as Senate Majority Leader, it was case closed.

Score: Righteous P.C. Americans 1, Southern Racist Bastards 0.

In reality, the only win in the contest was that one man who made one particular set of remarks would no longer vie for one seat. No more broad conversation came of it.

First, Lott’s remarks are a reflection, to some degree, of attitudes still considered acceptable. The people of Mississippi chose him — the majority of those who voted, anyhow — and he felt comfortable airing these remarks in the company of lifetime members of some old boys club at a centennial birthday shindig. These factors make it hard to believe that condemnation of Lott was unanimous.

Second, the problems Lott was ostensibly referring to were those related to race. We can disagree with Lott’s support of a segregationist stance and still reasonably acquiesce that unfortunately, the socio-economic and educational disparity that still exists in this country, often described along racial lines, is part of our American reality.

Race has become a shorthand for describing the factors that affect financial success, crime rates and even property values. And if in only the past few years, the city of Cincinnati can be governed by martial law after riots ensued following allegations of police brutality, we must admit that we still live in an age where race relations is considered a problem.

However, America still needs to have the discussion of what kind of problems we are willing to live with, and which we find unacceptable. It happened in the 1960s, when Americans, however grudgingly, agreed to trade the problem of segregation for the problem of living up to our egalitarian ideals and ensuring civil rights for all citizens.

While now most would agree it was a trade for the better, we must admit that four centuries of inequality can not be erased by a scant four decades of equality. The problems of today — while certainly different from those under Thurmond, had he won the presidency — are problems of growing out of oppression.

Sometimes freedom has a pretty long gestation period. When considering the changes the United States has undergone in half a century, we have evidence that we shall overcome these problems, especially with Trent Lott’s remarks presenting a national opportunity to focus upon the progress we have made and the deficiencies that remain.

However, Lott was branded an outcast and vanquished, but the ideals he echoed were not. In the end, celebrating getting rid of Lott and declaring victory was shortsighted.

We really need to discuss and work to counter what his remarks stood for.

Rachel Faber Machacha is a graduate student in international development studies from Emmetsburg.