The Half-Black/Half-White Insanity

I am sick and tired of the talk of Barack Obama possibly becoming the first black president of the United States. If you check your history, there have been other mixed-race presidents of this country. They may have been a little lighter and brighter than Sen. Obama, but they were still mixed. We are all from the same gene pool, and if science is to be believed we are all descended from the same woman in East Africa. This euphoria over Obama and his race merely confirms the indelible stain that racism has imprinted upon the American psyche.

The one-drop rule was a legal framework stemming from the Jim Crow era that specified that a person was black if he or she contained merely one drop of African blood. In practical terms, this rule was all but impossible to enforce, and many individuals of mixed heritage passed for white over the years; their progeny have fully integrated within the white race. Conversely, people whose racial heritage may be mixed but who have dark skin are all considered to be black, no matter what their personal identification or upbringing might have been. Thus, someone like Barack Obama, whose mother is white, and who was raised within a white family, with no contact with the black side of his family as a child, is considered by most people to be black. The insanity of color prejudice in this country forces people of mixed race to choose sides. They almost have to negate one part of themselves to acknowledge the other.

The more I ponder the absurdity of racism in this country, the more perplexed I have become. But what is clear to me is that come November, I will not be voting for or against anyone because of the color of their skin. As attractive as it might seem to try and change the legacy of racism by choosing the first viable black presidential candidate who comes along, there is too much at stake in this country to vote on such a frivolous basis. The person who gets my vote will be the candidate who presents the best vision for the direction of our country and who exhibits the better personal character.

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