As the Democratic primaries begin to really heat-up...one has to wonder, why African Americans have defected the Clinton camp for the charm of Barack Obama.

Moreover, a recent comment made by Bill Clinton also adds an interesting observation that continues to plague African American voters in this year's primaries: ""God works in strange ways," Clinton told the congregation at Temple of Praise in Southeast Washington this morning. "All my life I have wanted to vote for a woman for president," he added, noting he was "born to a widowed mother" who sometimes "suffered discrimination" at work. "And all my life I have wanted to vote for an African American for president," he continued, saying his life in politics "was born in the civil rights struggle." "I wonder why God gave us this dilemma," he asked.

(MSNBC, 2008).

Incidentally, the parallel made by Bill Clinton of why African Americans in general may be torn between the two candidates- may be a correct assumption. However, the answer may also partially lie in a psychological term called "self identity." More importantly, the constructs of self identity appear to be fluid within the psychological community. Whereas, over 6000 entries in the ERIC database relate to self-concept.

This interesting construct emerges from the school of self-concept. Which, apparently is the most widely utilized term in psychology. Perhaps the most important distinction that differentiates various conceptualizations is whether self-concept is viewed as an overarching, global characteristic of the person, or as a set of self-evaluations specific to different domains of behavior. The global view, sometimes conceptualized as "self-esteem" or "general self-concept," is the older and probably the more common view among counselors and therapists (Strein, 1993). Items comprising the "Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale" (Rosenberg, 1965) capture the essence of the global self-concept idea, and continue to be used frequently in research. "The Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale" (Piers, 1984) and the "Tennessee Self Concept Scale" (Fitts, 1991), both commonly used instruments, are also rooted in the global tradition, although each also provides domain-specific scales."

Several studies have gauged the African Amerian psyche as it relates to self identity. Steck et al (2004) examined sub-samples of African American and White students in various universities in the Northeast. Their findings were rather surprising. Whites by far,

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