Jeremiah Wright, Meet Geraldine Ferraro

Before you begin to read this, remember, it's all politics at the end of the day. There is no "new kind" of politics... it's just politics. In politics, anything that gives you an advantage is exploited if you can get away with it. Some politicians are smoother than others, but they all do it. With that said, there is more than a good chance America is going to elect the first black or woman President on November 4th. Many people, including myself, are excited to see history in the making. The funny thing is, it's becoming increasingly difficult to talk about why. I'd like to dig deeper into why we're obsessed with race and gender in this campaign.

Geraldine Ferraro, the first female Vice Presidential candidate back in 1984, is a fiery figure in American politics. I admire her spirit and "tell it like it is" attitude. Politically, she made a blunder as a supporter of Hillary Clinton by saying Barack Obama "wouldn't be where he is if he wasn't black." Ferraro included herself by explaining that as a woman it helped her in 1984 to become the first female Vice Presidential candidate. Still, she should have expected a firestorm by commenting on Obama's race. Naturally, she didn't apologize and even fought back after being likened to a racist. Ferraro is not a racist, but it's difficult to defend her remarks in today's world. The Clinton camp found ways to spin Ferraro's role in the campaign. Obama supporters accused them of playing the race card. Hillary publicly "disagreed" with the comments, and Ferraro stepped down from Hillary's finance committee.

On the heels of the Ferraro controversy, we see a Pastor addressing a church shouting "God Damn America!" for the plight of African Americans in poverty. This is the now infamous Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's spirtual advisor for the last 20 years. We see him standing at the pulpit shouting that because Hillary has never been called the N-word, she doesn't know what it's like for black people in America. According to him, that means she wouldn't make as good a President as Barack Obama. Clinton's campaign cried foul. Today, even as the controversy intensified, Obama gave a major speech on the issue of race itself. He said, "I can no more disown him [Rev. Wright] than I can disown the black community," although he denounced the statments "at issue"... That seems to sit just fine with Obama supporters.

Can we call it even? How will we ever move beyond racial, ethnic, religious, gender, sexuality (the list goes on) differences if we're afraid to shine the light on them? In regards to this campaign and politics in general, think of it as a perceived disadvantage paying off in the end. Typically, you're already behind if you're non-white, non-male, and non-Christian...If you rise above the norm and break the mold, guess what? You get noticed! What might have been a disadvantage suddenly turns into an asset. Obama and Hillary are trail-blazers, going farther than any woman or African American in political history. This is a great for America and future generations because eventually, race and gender won't matter in politics. This country is still healing old wounds, and older generations have a much different perspective than younger generations. We can't allow the same divisions that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama personally fought to overcome to divide us any longer.