Race and Gender Issues in Election 2008?

This topic reflects our country's immaturity, youth, and tragic flaw. We are compelled to discuss the race and gender of candidates rather than the substance of their positions. I'm not criticizing the fact that we discuss race and gender, but merely make the point that the supposed greatest country on earth must discuss issues that other countries have disposed of long ago.In the discussion, it is often forgotten that the United States is a young country. Just three generations ago have women had the right to vote. African Americans have only had an enforceable right to vote for only one generation. And, now here we are with a black and a women poised to be the Democratic party candidate for President.England, India, the Philippines, Pakistan, and other countries have long ago had women serve as the country's chief executive, and Peru has elected an ethnic minority as president.So, now that we have to discuss the issue, what do we have to say about it? Nothing! What can be said? It's not as if we have never had a black and a woman run for President. This is the first time that one of these minorities (if you consider women a minority, which they are not)is a lock to be the party candidate.Then the question becomes whether or not the country is ready to elect a black or a woman President. The answer is no, at least as to a black.This is a racist country. Conceived in racism and, until the mid-sixties, dedicated to the proposition that racial minorities should have no rights a white man is bound to respect. Is it coincidence that some of the authors here, writing on this subject, not taken the care to spell Barack Obama's name correctly? Often overlooked is this discussion is the fact that there would be no America if not for racism. Our government's treatment of the indigenous people has been appalling. If other countries currently did to their indigenous people what this country has done over the last two centuries, we would immediately and righteously condemn them or sanction them or something.The tragedy of racism has not left us. We have not outgrown it. The racial undertones of the recent statewide campaigns in Tennessee and Virginia show the real America. A country conflicted.