If any black American believes Obama has a “black agenda” or cares about blacks until it’s time for his re-election, wake up! Look beyond the man’s skin color, examine his policies; ask yourself have they made my life better or worse; and vote on that.

I am a huge fan of comedy of all kinds. I enjoy it all from sitcoms to stand up. Who doesn’t love to laugh? Before the election in 2008, comedian Steve Harvey put out a stand up set called “Still Trippin’”. Being the Steve Harvey fan that I am, I had to see it. During the set he tells the audience that, as black people, we have an “obligation” to vote for Barrack Obama. He goes onto say that it’s not even a choice. It’s my duty. This hit a nerve with me. But it’s Steve Harvey. You can’t put too much stock into what comes out of his mouth.

But then I heard black conservative commentator, Armstrong Williams, reiterate that same concept in an interview with Dr. Marc Lamont Hill. He confessed that he had this sense of obligation to vote for Obama. This almost made me physically angry. So because I’m black and he’s black, I have to vote for him? What if I don’t? Am I less black? Am I neglecting my duty as a black man? What would Dr. King say about that? When he said to judge by the content of character and not by the color of the skin did he leave off “…unless they’re the same color as you in which case don’t look into character. Just go with it.”? Isn’t that racism? Aren’t you putting me in a category because of the color of my skin?

Obama’s background sets him apart either from the blue-blooded upbringing of our Bushes and Gores, or the folksy everyman heritage of a Clinton or Reagan. More than that, it sets him apart from…well, just about everybody.

You have to understand something about the racial divisions of Washington D.C. to understand the importance and audacity of Fenty’s promise. D.C.’s white minority predominantly lives in the pleasant neighborhoods of the city’s northwest quadrant. For them (for us — I live there too), city inefficiency is an annoyance, sometimes a serious annoyance.

But on balance: For us, it’s not so bad. Services have unquestionably improved over the past decade, especially the services the affluent care about most. Where city services have not improved, the affluent white population can usually work its way around city failures. The affluent neighborhoods support a volunteer ambulance service so that they do not have to rely on the city’s lethally lackadaisical ambulances. They maintain neighborhood watch programs to do the job the police do not do. The elementary schools in Northwest D.C. are excellent, and when it comes time for high school, the affluent either pay for private schooling or move to the suburbs.

Is America only for white people? The question stuck in my mind following yet another e-mail exchange with a friend of mine, regarding my conservatism. For this particular gentleman, being black in America is at odds with conservatism.

Matt Bai’s column today about race and the Tea Party movement seem to answer two issues that have been making the news as of late. The first is of course, the latest round in the “Is the Tea Party racist?” meme. The answer to that question is not a simple yes/no answer. While I think there are racists that have shown up at Tea Party rallies and while I don’t think the Tea Parties are helpful to the Republican Party, I tend to think that on the whole the Tea Party is not racist.

That said, I don’t always get the impression that the Tea Partiers or the wider conservative movement goes out of its way to actively welcome minorities. So, no, the Tea Party is some modern incarnation of the Klan, but it isn’t Sesame Street either.

Last Tuesday, Mexico joined the Obama administration in a lawsuit against Arizona for its passing of SB1070. Mexican President, Felipe Calderon, said about the law, that it “…opens the door to unacceptable racial discrimination.” But, Mexico itself has a history of unacceptable racial discrimination that continues till this day with no end in sight.

Racism and xenophobia is a part of Mexican culture. Some examples, In the 1930s most Chinese Mexicans and their descendents (No “Anchor Babies” there) were forced out of Mexico and deported to China, and over 300 were massacred, for no other reason than they were Chinese. If you ever heard the Mexican school yard rhyme that starts by saying, “Chino, Chino, Japones…,” you know about the prejudice Mexicans feel for Asians. Mexicans also have a history of denying blacks (The Afro-Mexican) exist in Mexico and degrade them by calling them “Mayates”(Their version of the “N” word). And, they continue to mistreat their indigenous peoples. “Mexico’s biggest and most visible class division is its division between Indians and those of predominantly Spanish and European ancestry. Prejudice against those who are predominantly descended from indigenous peoples is widespread.”

Recently, a Conservative Police Officer came banging on my door asking me to drop the term “Urban” because it means “Black”—or else he’d lock me up!

I am an American!I am an American! I do not define myself by my past. I define myself by what I am now. I speak English, listen to American music, eat American food; through birth and association—I am, a product of the American culture.

Sure I was born the son of Guatemalan immigrants, my father the grandson of Mexicans, my mother the granddaughter of Italians, but that does not define me. I do not wear my parents’ history on my sleeve, and neither do my parents. When I was growing up, very little was spoken at home about Guatemala that was good. I was never inspired to have pride in being Guatemalan; my parents were disillusioned with their home country. Instead, I was always encouraged to take pride in being an American. My parents made no distinction between my brown skin and the white skin that was erroneously associated with Americans by ignorant and under-educated Hispanic immigrants. It is because of my parents that, similarly to Zora Hurston, in her essay, “How it Feels to Be Colored Me,” “I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries. My country, right or wrong”.

Genetic racists feel we’re children of a lesser god. On a molecular level they conclude we’re beasts to be managed by better gifted populations. A half-White president is used to prove their case, despite usually disagreeing with most of his agenda.Their solutions range from repealing anti-discrimination laws to strengthening sanctions against Black offenders in the criminal justice and related arenas. Mass deportation and partitioning states into racial homelands are also favored strategies. The genetic school is the oldest bastion of resistance to Black progress.

In my view it’s also the most widespread view of my people. That said I don’t waste time proving humanity or intellect to those who consider me innately inferior for either cultural or genetic reasons . What’s the point. Color and competence play host to myriad considerations. Our mission, if we choose to accept it, is to transcend limitations imposed by either cultural and genetic racists.Trying to appeal to the better angels of their nature is a waste of time.

“When I hear someone say something along the lines of ‘why do we have to be talking about race? Why can’t we just be people and let that stuff alone’, I hear someone who hasn’t had the occasion to think hard about how the past effects the present.”

Governor Palin is an ethnic escapist dream where simple rural girls best slick urban intellectuals.

I was an innocent – not pure as the driven snow, but certainly unwise as to the level of the stakes at which we were playing. I entered the debate believing it would be an intellectual exercise; we would joust with each other and after it was all over shake hands and exit with mutual respect. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Black Republicans running for various offices this election cycle seem to be running from race while running their race. This is one of the most asinine things I have every seen, but not unexpected. This is why Black Republicans have no credibility within their own community

I was shocked to learn about the history of the democrat party and how that party laid the foundation that has influenced race relations in America in the past. Those past political actions by the democrat party continue, to this day, to exploit the impoverished condition of black Americans, which were caused by the democrat party for the purpose of gaining political power.