Is America Ready?

I predict that this election will quickly be boiled down by the Democrats and the Press (but I repeat myself) into: "Is America ready to elect a woman President?"

If you're against her, you are a Neanderthal throwback sexist. Your only real choice, to prove your Holy Progressive Open-Mindedness™ would be to vote for her.

It will be said, if she is not elected, that America is too "backward".

As if we are not allowed to consider whether or not we want her to represent us based on, say, issues we may or may not agree with her on. Nope. She's a woman. If you don't vote her in, you're a caveperson.

Much is being made... by the press ... about the first black head coach(es) to make the Superbowl. Frankly, it never occurred to me that I should make anything of it. Two qualified men coached their teams well and they made the Superbowl. It does not matter to me what their racial origin is. Isn't this the way it's supposed to be?

I have a dream that my four little children 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.

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dudes, in my world, that day is here, if you let it be. The reporter asked a man who has spent the last decade or so promoting black coaches if one day it won't be a big deal when a black coach makes or wins the Superbowl. I thought "yeah, the day folks in the press decide not to make it one." Because as far as I can tell, it isn't a big deal to anyone else.

Interestingly, in the same report it was pointed out that 70% of professional football players are black. This was mentioned to point out the disparity between the percentage of players and the percentage of coaches of color -- an obvious sign that The Man™ is at work here.

Completely missing was any shock that, in a country that's around 13% African American, 70% of people in a certain profession are ... African American. Note that I don't have a problem with those statistics -- if the better athletes are black, then they should make the team. And they do. It's the selectively applied criticism that I find ... um ... hypocritical.

Ultimately, the most satisfying way to diffuse this casting of the election is "are you sexist or not?" would be for the Republicans to throw up a female candidate for president. It would be even richer if she were black. Too bad Condi doesn't want to run. There has to be someone else out there.