Race in today's fiction

I picked up the October 2010 issue of "The Writer" today and read the most interesting article by Lynn Capehart called "The Important of Inclusionary Writing." In it, she discusses how many white authors only describe their non-write characters and do so in racial terms. One of her examples:

"Bringing up the rear was Solomon, a tall black man."

The other characters were not described by race, so the readers just assumes that they are all white. She points out several things, including that...