I saw a story on CNN this morning that bothered me in terms of how race in America really works.

The story was "winning the black vote" and it was reaction to a recent rally/debate where Obama spoke along with the other democrats.

CNN reported the story as, "are the candidates doing enough to win the black vote".

Link to story: //www.barackobama.com/2007/07/12/theres_more_to_do_obama_tells_1.php

America has fought pretty hard to integrate races and treat everyone as equals, but this story tells me that the races are still treated to think differently and vote differently. Yes, we all have differences, but lumping everyone into general categories is wrong. It is a bit condenscending isn't it?

As a white guy living in an affluent suburban neighborhood, I can hit a golf ball with an 8 iron from my front lawn (nice white guy reference huh?) and hit the houses of diverse people.

My neighbors include... an African American family, a mixed race family, a muslim family, a lesbian couple, all live within my view and I celebrate that fact. It makes me think America is working and all the freedom offered is being taken advantage of. We all live together with acceptance. This is good right? America has moved on.

Then CNN puts a crack in my windshield with "winning the black vote". Side note: "black"? Aren't we using "African American" in 2007? I don't want to offend anyone, but I have been taught through mixed circles and media that "african american" is the appropriate term.

Obama and Hillary are appearing to be the front running democrats. When voting for any candidate, I recommend digging deeper than the candidate's website or major news headlines. Get more info than the high level rhetoric they post or what is reported. Read opinion articles. Using your PC, setup RSS feeds and targeted google searches on their names. See what is really going on. Read everything you can. You might (you will) find very different bits of information that will show that all the candidates are normal humans with self interests like all of us. Their running for office is not about "the people", but mostly about their political machine and ego. I digress.

My main point is that most voters in America are generally dumb and uninformed when voting and absorb mass media like sponges and then vote using that boiled down mass info. It is sad but true.

I also think that voters are getting smarter with other outlets of information. Just use those outlets.