Last weekend, a local business owner had three men come into her store and shake her down, calling her a racist because she doesn’t have a Barack Obama sign in the front of her store.
This is nothing compared to what African-Americans and other minorities have experienced in our country. American history is sordid, to say the least, from the very start. What Columbus and his boys did to the Native Americans is inexcusable. The horrors of slavery throughout the US make my stomach turn. That we still see the effects of the past walking in the present makes me lose sleep at night.
Yesterday, someone called me a racist. Because I am not voting for Barack Obama. I was shaken. And pissed off.
I’ve been called many, many things in my life, many of them true. But something I have NEVER been called is a racist. I know that this person doesn’t know me. This person is judging me superficially. This person assumes because he’s had a bad experience with a caucasian person that all of us are bad. But that accusation led me to think about the heart of this election.
Race is playing a much larger role in this election than I realized. I understand the African-American community seeing hope that an African-American man could be elected president. I would love to see an African American president. But I would love to see a qualified man as president rather than one who only spews rhetoric.
Accusations of racism can be made on both sides. If I am a white woman voting for John McCain and that makes me a racist, doesn’t that make an African-American who is voting for Barack Obama a racist also? Or am I the only person that qualifies as a racist because I have white skin? If that is true, why is that true?
Gender roles are playing a huge part in this election. When it looked like Hilary Clinton was going to be running for president, women were burning their bras in the street, ecstatic that they could finally act like men, be men, have a woman as a president. Someone who favors abortion, wears the pants in her marriage, and wants to see women more powerful than men.
Sarah Palin–she’s more problematic for women. Maybe because she is pro-life, not pro-choice. Maybe because she’s a mommy to her children as well as a strong leader. Maybe because she’s a Christian and seems to live pretty well within that belief system, even in her public life. Maybe because she’s representative of the Proverbs 31 woman.
I don’t know who you are voting for in this election. Frankly, I don’t care. All I ask of you is this: don’t vote for someone based solely on his race. I am horrified that there are people who will vote for John McCain solely because he’s white. I am equally as horrified that someone will vote for Barack Obama solely because he’s black. And if you don’t like Sarah Palin, that’s all well and good. Just don’t base your opinion of her on celebrities’ opinions and SNL. Celebrities want to maintain their hedonistic lifestyle. Anything opposed to that makes them angry. And there are always microphones available to them.
Deneen White 
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