Despite all of the efforts made, all of the progress we’ve made and all of the truly good work performed by countless people in this country and around the world, we have many people who are unable to see past the color of one’s skin when determining the merit of that person. Racism is a real thing- real, vile and something we as a collective whole have to learn how to get past.

Racism unfortunately has played a part in the current presidential election. There are far too many people- some of whom I’ve known personally- who would never vote for a person solely because of the color of their skin. That, in and of itself, is a tragedy. However, abuse of that fact can be a tragedy in and of itself.

Witness the actions of some in the Democratic Party.

There have been articles written in major publications saying that if Barack Obama is not elected, it means we are a racist nation. A Columnist for the New York Times said the very same thing. Now, there comes the news that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid implied racism on the part of a radio host when the host tied the actions of former Fannie Mae executive Franklin Raines.

All of this serves only to undermine Barack Obama as a legitimate candidate for the highest office in the land.

I don’t believe that Barack Obama is behind the cries of racism in lieu of “wolf.” I think that he is serious when he says he wants to change the tone of politics in America. I also believe, however, that he wants to win very badly. In the process of running this election, he has taken on advisors that are very willing to use very old political games to make their candidate the winner.

This somewhat offends me, to be honest. I’m looking at Barack Obama, and what bothers me is not his skin tone but rather his stance on the War in Iraq and on Health Insurance. The fact that he is our first African-American candidate to get through the primaries and run in the general election is important, but more important is the way he would handle the financial crisis and the housing collapse.

It also offends me that people who have nothing to do with ordinary people outside of NYC and LA assume the rest of us are ignorant bigoted simple folks. Yes, they’re out there. But they are small in number compared to the rest of us who don’t care if the man is black or white.

We just want to know if he’s the right man for the job, and playing these games with race only serves to insult us and demean what he’s trying to do.

Out.