They accuse the president of stirring up racial conflict in a country where many people have been happy enough to define themselves as mestizo (of mixed race).

ECONOMIST: Too much confronting and voting, too little governing

The best way to deal with racial conflict is 24-hour immersion, says Charles Moskos, a professor of sociology at Northwestern University, who notes that the most effectively integrated institution in America is the army.

ECONOMIST: Fire services

But it raised the specter of racial and tribal conflict in the event of Gadhafi's overthrow.

CNN: Libya seen through Gadhafi's keyhole

Written during the 1984-85 UK miners' strike after the author discovered his parents' gravestones had been daubed with obscene graffiti, the poem tackles subjects such as racial and religious conflict.

BBC: Tony Harrison to perform controversial poem V on Radio 4

Lastly, the president said the key to sustained growth in Africa will be the elimination of racial and ethnic conflict, and an end to the many wars that have flared across the continent in the course of the last five years.

CNN: Clinton says U.S. will be 'friend for life' of Africa

The conflict over admissions based on racial preferences used to be limited to America's universities.

ECONOMIST: Reverse discrimination

Typically, it is the poor, remote rural populations, those affected by conflict, or those belonging to ethnic, racial and linguistic minorities that are most often left out of education.

UNESCO: HIV and AIDS