by Shirley Norling

Created on: September 14, 2008   Last Updated: September 10, 2011

Racism shouldn't prevent white Americans from voting for Barack Obama. We've come a long way in the past few years concerning racists issues. I'm not saying there aren't racists white Americans out there, I know they're still are plenty of them. Some of our older generation folks still haven't excepted the fact that the color of your skin doesn't determine who you are as an individual. I believe a lot of younger white Americans aren't as bothered by this as much as their fore fathers were, although some of them still are.

  We seem to see a lot of blending among our different races today. At my place of work, in the past couple of years, 3 white girls married 3 black gentlemen and had their babies. The place I work at isn't that big either, and neither is the community. It is largely composed of white Americans, but interracial dating and marrying is becoming more popular in today's society. Our youth are traveling to the larger metropolitan areas for socializing, thus making mingling among different racial groups more common.

A lot of our youth will be first time voters and I don't feel racism will be an issue for most of them. There certainly could be a lot of other issues involved in deciding whether or not to vote for Barack Obama, but I don't feel race will be one of them for many of us.

We all need to look at what both Barack Obama and John McCain can do for our country. We need to know where both of them stand on the major issues that are facing the American people today. Our economy is at an all time low. Many Americans don't even have jobs. Bankruptcy and foreclosure are plaguing our nation. Health care is another major issue that needs to be resolved. We have to look at where these two candidates stand on these issues, not the color of their skin.

Hopefully, as both candidates say, "My fellow Americans", the race card won't be a factor. There will look be more important issues to consider  when Americans decide who they are going to vote for.

John McCain has the now famous Sara Palin as his running mate. This country has never had a woman for vice president. Some individuals may not want to vote for McCain because of this.They may think a woman is not capable of handling the job of vice president of the United States. This could be considered a prejudicial issue also, I feel.

On election day, I hope white Americans, as well as all Americans, are wise enough to make their choice for the next president of the United States based on the issues, not race, sex, or religion, when they enter the voting booth. That decision is a very important one, as it's going to determine who's going to lead our great country for the next four years.

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