race or sex...

For the past year, national politics have asked you to choose. Do you identify more to your race, or to your sex? Political minds believe that Blacks will only vote for Obama because he is Black. Others feel that Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin was chosen to lure women voters who were set to cast for Hillary Clinton.

As a woman, who is Black, I own two characterstics one might describe as "oppressed." I came from a history of women who were treated below the lowest in the Black community. It was rare to even see images of people like me on television, if not in some stereotypical manner. To this day, I believe that some White people have a hard time classifying me. I'm not exactly ghetto, not exactly suburban, not matriarchal.

Unfortunately, as a "minority" you have to fit easily in some sort of slot in order to be understood by the mainstream. Which is one of the biggest reasosns I am drawn to Barack Obama. He isn't exactly anything like we've seen before in politics. Some critics have accused him of not being "Black enough" which is an absurdity. Not one idea or background translates the "Black experience" in America. No matter what CNN says, I can point out a Black person and expect them to understand my upbringing and mindset. That's the reason why I don't listen to a lot of Hip Hop...I just don't relate to it. Now, that doesn't mean that some White kid in Minnesota doesn't hear 2Pac and can't feel more connected than I do, because he's White.

Nevertheless, I identify more with being a woman, than being Black. I think my experiences as a woman first, then a woman of color has shaped who I am. I know that a sa Black woman, the bar is so low, that the only thing I am expected to have is a fat ass and a weave. So breaking out that stereotype is hard enough as it is.

But I don't think that you have to choose. There is a unique experience felt as a woman of color in America, as detailed by some of my favorite writers: Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez. It's an experience of being the cushion for a down-trodden man, a wicked nation, and bringing up a generation through obstacles including AIDS, the media, crack and self-destruction. It is inherently motherly and soulful.

This is the perfect time to take Martin Luther King's words to heart. Judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Don't cast your vote just because Obama is Black. Don't love Sarah Palin just because she is a woman. Research each candidate and vote for the one who speaks to you the most. Don't let race or sex be a deciding factor...even though this is the first time it has been a significant factor in America's history.