"since I barely watch the news or read a paper lately, could you elaborate? Who used race to distract from class?"
CNN, NYT, dailykos, MoveON, ect... all those you correctly locate outside of the left. Here is a related question I often pose to new folks I meet who are left leaning: does your definition of the left only include views that are specifically anti-capitalist?. I think that WBM is actually attempting to draw a political line in the sand to force this question into the public political arena (however small the actual audience he is reaching and however badly he fails because of his rhetorical style). This is where his articles become important, because it causes debates here and elsewhere that help us to define the boundaries of those who are working for the same goals and those who may be working cross-purposes with those goals, whether intentionally or not.
Brad