Are you more racist, or more sexist?

The dozen or so Spelman College women had come together in a basement classroom, after hours, to hash over a choice unimaginable just a few generations back.

Fliers posted across campus summed up the thrust of their conversation: “Should you vote for Barack Obama because of your race, or should you vote for Hillary Clinton because you are a woman?”

With Democratic primaries quickly approaching, black women throughout Atlanta and across the nation are asking each other that question. They are debating it as they post blogs, meet for political round tables, host fund-raisers and whip out their checkbooks.

Can anyone explain why this is OK and not considered racist or sexist? If it’s that black people and women can’t be racist or sexist, then isn’t *that* statement itself racist or sexist? What if the quote read like this instead :

The dozen or so Spelman College men had come together in a basement classroom, after hours, to hash over a choice unimaginable just a few generations back.

Fliers posted across campus summed up the thrust of their conversation: “Should you vote for Hilary Clinton because of your race, or should you vote for John Edwards because you are a man?”

With Democratic primaries quickly approaching, white men throughout Atlanta and across the nation are asking each other that question. They are debating it as they post blogs, meet for political round tables, host fund-raisers and whip out their checkbooks.

Wouldn’t that be automatically racist? This is all besides the fact that we should be deciding who to vote for based on ideas, platforms and positions, not identity politics in which the circumstances of your birth are more important than your thoughts and ideas.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.