Last week Geraldine Ferraro made a controversial statement regarding Barack Obamas' race. This illustrates an important issue in our society today. That is the increasing use of a persons race, ethnicity, religious background, or gender to determine the way a person acts, how they may think, or their suitability for a position. Isn't this exactly what we are trying to get away from?

What is even more interesting is that the Democratic party, the party of inclusiveness, the party of equality, the party for ending racism, is the most egregious perpetrator of stereotyping. I believe that the Democrats have painted themselves in a corner that they may find a hard time to escape from. The problem is their embracing of the liberal ideal of diversity. At first the ideal of diversity was a way to reduce negative stereotypes by acknowledging the positive aspects of an ethnic group instead of making fun of the differences. It was an attempt to say just because we are different doesn't mean that one is better than another. A noble idea that seems to have missed it's mark.

Instead of bringing people together, it started dividing people as different ethnics groups embraced their cultural heritage and in many ways rejected the societies mainstream culture. Thus people started identifying themselves as a hyphen - American rather than an American. It doesn't take a college professor to recognize that the unintended consequences of this action is more division and less unity; actually I'm not sure the college professors have caught on to this fact.

The Democratic party was very vocal in their local and national campaigns to point out that their candidate was a member of a particular ethnic or gender group and therefore special; and if they were not a member of a minority group they would claim some special affinity to one. Case in point, the claim that Bill Clinton was the first black president, yeah right.

On the other hand the Republican party, the party of the white majority, the party of exclusion, is the party that does not sound a trumpet about the ethnicity or gender of their candidates; and in truth have more national leaders in high offices that are ethnic minorities than the Democrats. What is their secret? The Republicans do not pick people based on their appeal to an ethnic group but on their ability, the way it should be.

Hopefully one day we will stop trying to label people based on race, ethnicity, or gender. Instead will will live by the words of Dr. King, "will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

The best way to achieve that dream is to stop looking at people based on their race, ethnic background, or gender and look at them as just a person, no better or no worse than anyone else.

- Thomas Paine 2

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