N*gga please!

A blog called The Political Beat, which purports to be written by an African-American, has recently insinuated that Black people are voting for Obama solely on the basis of race (which he, in a leap of logic, likens to "selling out").

If we accept the above definition of selling out, then the question we face when we consider this phrase is "What is the best interest of the group?" since selling out is working against this interest. I submit that a political candidate who has a similar pigment does not necessarily have similar values or similar definitions of what is good for the whole. South Carolina voters, by and large, have not queried Mr. Obama on his position on commonly held issues such as affirmative action, the preservation of historically black colleges and universities, the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on the Black community, abstinence education, the mortgage crisis, social vs capital welfare, the federal commitment to state level higher education, and the emphasis on standardized testing in the K-12 system.

These issues impact the daily lives of Black Americans more than the War, more than the lack of "Vision", and rhetoric about "Change."

Has Mr. Obama been vetted? What is his position on each of these issues?

If you, as an individual Black voter, are voting for this man without knowing the answers to these questions then you are not merely giving away your vote; you are selling out. You are not voting for the good of the race, for the good of South Carolina, for the good of your children. You are voting because of pigmentation, not policy articulation. You are voting because it makes YOU feel good to have a viable Black candidate. You are voting because YOU want to see a Black man sitting in the Oval Office. It matters not whether or not this is the right Black man, it only matters that it is A Black man.

This is tremendously insulting to African-Americans on a number of levels, not the least of which are the assumptions that we are...
a) A monolithic block of sheep-like drones who all vote the same way for the same reason.
b) The only group of citizens that doesn't take a candidate's character and record into consideration when making voting choices.
and c) Apparently incapable of doing even the simplest of online (or otherwise) research to find the answers to the questions we have of the candidates.

The simplest of Google searches (not to mention just going to Obama's official site) answers his queries...

http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Barack_Obama.htm
http://obama.senate.gov/news/070907-the_swamp_obama/
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/#mortgage-issue
http://obama.senate.gov/issues/education/
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/

I'm quite sure the voters of South Carolina have done this and more.

And, for the record, I am Black.