RE: "Is Sexism Less Offensive Than Racism in Politics?"

[THIS IS A COMMENT THAT I POSTED IN RESPONSE TO A CNN.COM ARTICLE ASKING WHETHER RACISM OR SEXISM IS WORSE IN THIS ELECTION. I LIKED IT ENOUGH TO SHARE.]

I agree that sexism and racism are both equally bad factors to use in deciding how to cast your ballot. It seems that the Democratic Party is in a place of wanting to right old injustices and start fresh by saying, "See? We are no longer white males only; in fact, we are willing to entrust our highest office to this once-oppressed group. Let's put that old day behind us." I think this is an incredibly powerful desire on the part of the American people. Electing a woman tells the world that we are willing to let a woman rule our country the same as electing a black man tells the world the same message.

However, without in any way discrediting the past and current injustices committed against women, no injustice has so torn our nation apart and threatened to destroy this country as the injustice committed against African-Americans, through slavery, during Reconstruction, and for the decades after. Nothing divides our nation now and disempowers the American people now as much as racism - both ongoing and its repercussions from two hundred years of blatant and destructive discrimination.

While that is the kind of statement that matters most as a declaration by the American people to itself, as a sign of unity behind an ideal, it is also worth thinking about how the rest of the world will view this election, and from that perspective, imagine what statement we give in a President Barack Hussein Obama. Our enemies gain credibility by describing America as a vanilla-white society who suppresses people different than ourselves whose goal is to homogenize the world under the banner of McDonald's. Obama is an American through-and-through and - though Christian - has a Muslim-sounding name. By electing a black man whose life story rings true with people from the very parts of the world who feel the most alienated by Americans we are not only healing the wounds of our own domestic injustices, we are showing the world what American democracy really truly is all about, and we are proving Osama bin Laden wrong and showing that we are more than our mistakes.

As a country, we are being put in an intimidating position of responsibility: choosing which wrong we want to right first. The injustices against women need addressing (as the blatantly sexist remarks this election season have proven) and I believe that a day is coming soon when these injustices will be addressed, but the defeat of the racism prevalent in this campaign is as significant a moment for democracy as Americans are ever likely to see.