Is Race EVERYTHING?

Watching the news this morning made me ponder the question, "Does race still matter in America?". I'll get to why I was pondering that question in a minute...

I would love to say "no", but reality always tells me "yes". When will I, an intelligent, educated African-American female, every be looked as just a woman, not just an African-American woman? I listen intently to what people say throughout the day. Just today, I overheard a conversation two people were having. The two were Caucasian and one was describing a person to the other. The one describing started off by describing the person's race FIRST. Now, I thought, "Maybe this is just a coincidence."

I decided to do my own unscientific poll. I had a magazine with me and I asked 2 African-American peers of mine and 2 Caucasian peers of mine to describe the person they saw in the magazine article I showed them. The 2 Caucasian peers started off by describing the person's race FIRST. The two African American peers did mention race, but they described the weight, height, clothes the person had on in the article and then race.

I say all that to say this: This country will not get any better and race relations will stay the way they are if we do not start looking past a person' s color. Now, obviously, if you are describing a person to another person, race will be one of your descriptions, but I think it was interesting where the race description fell in order during my unscientific poll.

Now, back to the reason I was pondering today....Biden, the newest presidential hopeful, made a comment about Barack Obama being (and I am paraphrasing) first mainstream, clean, well articulate, good looking African American running. Now, first off, why Biden is not remembering Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Shirley Chisholm, and Carol Moseley Braun running for the presidency? These people were and are very articulate, clean, and somewhat good lookin. :) Does Biden think the majority of African Americans are not?

What trips me out is, this is not the first time he has said something that puts a race of people in a negative light. Am I suppose put my trust in a man who sees only race when he is looking at a person who looks different than him? I don't care what people say, race is everything (unfortunately). I will always be looked at as an African American woman, not just a woman. Don't get me wrong, I am VERY proud of my heritage. But, when race affects great political people like Harold Ford, Jr. and Barack Obama, I can't just sit by and not voice my opinion.