Equality Now!

Statement #1: "I am voting for Obama because I want a black man in the White House".

Statement #2: "I am voting for McCain because I want a white man in the White House".

Read both of those statements out loud a couple of times. They are fundamentally the exact same sentence. The only structural difference is the name of the candidate and the description of their skin color. Yet the perception that these two very similar statements are so very different holds the key to this November's election (if Osama wins the Democratic nomination).

If you are black it is assumed that statement number one is the sole determining factor in your choice to vote for Osama. It is considered a complete and thorough justification for choosing the highest elected official on the planet. I am not black but I would be offended by this implication that blacks are incapable of making an informed decision that is based on anything so basic as the color of the candidate's skin. Meanwhile if you are black and say statement #2 you are the ultimate Uncle Tom, selling out your brothers and sisters for no good reason.

If you are white and say statement number one you are a hero to your liberal friends. You have finally come around to see the evil that white men perpetrate. It is time to give someone else a chance because white men have run this country for so long and look at where it has gotten us. Forget the fact that we have the number one economy in the world and are the number one superpower. We'll be better off letting someone else take that role, like China or the Russkies, and we can be their little buddy. They would never hurt us.

Now imagine the uproar from the media if someone from CNN with a camera catches a white guy saying statement #2 while wearing a McCain hat. A witch hunt will immediately commence. This man will be derided as being a Nazi (an ignorant statement to say the least seeing how the Nazi's were National Socialists, and I have yet to meet a socialist Republican). The man's picture would be plastered on the front page of that birdcage liner the NY Times under the heading "White Supremacist Backs McCain". He would almost definitely lose his job and may even have to go into hiding or move to another state to live in anonymity. For saying essentially the same thing that the media are using to push black folks to vote in record numbers.

Therein lies the rub. The people that claim to be the main proponents of equality are in fact pushing inequality. If the election comes down to McCain v. Osama anything negative brought up about Osama will immediately be called racist. Similarly, whites have been hammered away at by the media for at least my entire lifetime and I'm guessing it didn't start on the day I was born. This has lead to many whites being so hypersensitive about being called a racist that they will base their vote on being able to say that they aren't a racist. This is hardly a reason to choose a president. Even worse than solely basing it on the color of the candidate's skin.