I enjoyed your article. However, I feel you make some intellectual leaps without broader consideration of your premise. To surmise that Black youth and Black America at large subscribe to the race baiting of Al Sharpton and his ilk is a fatal flaw to your argument. I am 33 years old AA and am the beneficiary of the battles my fathers generation fought on my behalf. Yet he and I have totally different approaches to continuing the ongoing fight for equality. While he (and Rev. Wright) tend to want to be confrontational, I (and Sen. Obama) tend to want to take a more tactful, nuanced approach. You’ve heard the saying you get more flies with honey than… People such as Mrs. Christian are representative of an old way of approaching issues: brazen and angry. Most people in my age group, of all ethnicities, see this for what it is: a dead-end road to more hate. Regardless of her life story, throwing the descriptor “Black” directly behind the descriptor “inadequate” is divisive and hurtful. A better way to approach the issue would have been to say that he is unqualified and that she feels he is receiving “kid glove” treatment because he is Black. She would have gotten the same point across but in a way that would illicit debate instead of more reactionary vitriol. As someone who has been the victim of the glass ceiling I feel this sexism vs. racism debate is more divide and conquer than legitimate debate. What we are seeing is two groups of victims fight over who is more of a victim. If we are to be intellectually honest neither HRC nor BHO are any more qualified to be POTUS than the other. Their legislative accomplishments are both laughable in the face of McCain’s and her being the First Lady is no more a qualifier than BHO’s schooling overseas during primary school. I agree that a debate needs to be had on the divisive Al Sharptons of the world but that does not take away the fact that racism still exists. At the same time we need to discuss the rosy colored glasses that Mrs. Ferraro sees through that lead her to say that being a Black male in America is an asset. Yes sexism exists. My wife is an AA woman who has hit that female glass ceiling multiple times but sheer doggedness has seen her through. What saddens me is that HRC did not use this campaign as an opportunity to have a discussion about sexism in a constructive manner. Where was her speech on sexism? Instead we have her supporters left to give heartfelt comments to the press that allow them to be painted as caricatures of feminists. That is the one issue that I really wish she would have tackled and set the tone for civil discourse. Seething racial resentment can and has gone both ways in this nation for years but hurling emotional insults and accusations back and forth will solve nothing. A civil discussion that avoids hot-button terminology and is held on an intellectually honest basis is our only hope as a nation. God bless… p.s. – I am more than open to continued intellectual debate…jp_thevaultr@yahoo.com