This is being addressed to women, because I have been surprised with the number of women that I talk to that have racial prejudice around this election. I think it true that we all have some degree of racism. No matter how hard I try, I can’t shake it.  A part of me believes “I couldn’t send a kid to that school” or “I could never raise a kid in that neighborhood”, yet I still know blacks, Hispanics and people of other races who are responsible, intelligent people that I could live next door to. I know that it affects me and I am sure it affects a lot of us.

When I was a teenager I made a lot of bad decisions and ended up in and out of the legal system with quite a few stays in juvenile halls, camps, boys’ homes etc. The kids there were typically from the inner city and gangs…..many, already hardened criminals. I learned that prejudice was both ways and often even more prolific among blacks to whites. I know that the chaos had little to do with our skin color, but was more about cultural differences, abuses, poverty bla, bla, bla and that skin color was just the quickest way to tell one another apart. Something that happened back then I can still remember to this day. During my stays I became friends with a couple of kids on separate occasions that had bi-racial parents. Although they were nothing alike, there was one thing that they had in common. They seemed to care very little about how blacks might perceive them or expect them to behave, or who they were “supposed” to hang out with, etc. I noticed while they had prejudices, it wasn’t about skin color for them. I found it unusual for dark skin kids to be accepting me, a white kid, in such a hostile environment. (Keep in mind, at the time bi-racial kids were pretty rare). One of these guys I met when I was 13 and he was 17. One day an older black gang type kid decided to take something of mine that was brought to me during a visit. Things were getting pretty tense when my 17 year old friend actually stood up with me and helped put an end to the situation. I could hardly believe my own eyes……here a Kid who looked black was defending this white kid at risk of his own peril, against this other black kid in the midst of this crazy warehouse for delinquents. Both of these bi-racial kids were alike in this way. We only knew each other for the short term and never met again outside.

Is it possible that these kids having grown up with both whites and blacks in their immediate families simply transcended the bulls***? I hope that women especially consider this when deciding who to vote for. There are some things that I disagree about with Obama, and some with McCain, but I doubt that either is a racist. I hope that voters don’t make race a part of their decision.