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Does skin color matter? Since the election of President Barack Obama, I have been surprised by the number of people (usually Caucasian, but not always) who assert that it does not. With this one event they are ready to declare racism, colorism, discrimination, prejudice and bigotry in all its forms officially dead.

While believing that we, as a nation, have in fact realized Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of having achieved a state where people are judged only by the "content of their characters" is a nice idea, I really don't think we're there yet. Not by a long shot.

Don't get me wrong, life for African-Americans and other people of color has improved tremendously over the last forty or fifty years. I've seen incredible advances during my own lifetime and can attest to the fact that I really do notice that I am treated better, as an African-American woman today than my mother was when she was my age back in the 1970s and almost certainly better than my grandmother would have been when she was my age back in 1961. Even in the last ten to fifteen years daily life for me as a black person in America has improved greatly, so much so that I still find myself feeling caught a bit off guard, mostly when restaurant servers and store clerks are treating me with seemingly genuine friendliness and respect. Sadly, because I can still so clearly recall the blatant racism and disrespect that I witnessed as a child growing up in the 1960s and 70s I occasionally catch myself thinking, "I wonder why these white folks are being so nice to me?" before realizing that these young white people never lived in the world of discrimination that was so commonplace to me when I was their age.

But, despite these vast improvements, if anyone believes that color now has no impact, no influence upon any aspect of life in the United States then I would have to argue that those individuals are sadly mistaken.

Why do I believe this? Well, think of it this way. Let's put aside the question of skin color for a moment and look at some other physical attributes that have nothing to do with a person's intelligence, talents, moral character or general value as a human being. Physical attractiveness is probably a good example. Think about Susan Boyle, the middle aged Scottish woman who caused a sensation on the program, Britain's Got Talent. This woman has the voice of an angel but is decidedly challenged in the physical beauty department. When she walked out on stage she was initially

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