First it's W. Kamau Bell a stand-up comedian whom I just found out about thanks to, I have to admit, Jason Zinoman. Bell makes a really excellent point (plus it's funny) about the relative racism of the Tea Part in this video:
He also appeared in what looks like a great conference in 2010 called Facing Race 2010.
And thanks to following that link I discovered Melissa Harris-Perry (she was Melissa Harris-Lacewell when this video was made.) This woman has been all over MSNBC, how is it that I've never heard of her (or if I did, it didn't register)? This speech she gave at that conference is just absolutely mind-blowing in its sweet reason and insightfulness. It's an hour long so make sure you have enough time to watch this - she is a spell-binder and it will be very hard to stop in the middle: