In what can only be considered as having your race cake and eating it too, Hardy Brown, a writer for Black Voice News is demanding that African Americans vote for Barack Obama to ‘break the shackles of hopelessness that has weighed us down for so long,’ while simultaneously taking the high road by declaring that there is no place for racism in campaigns.

This is what is known as a Sharptonism – making a racist statement that attempts to portray the speaker as non-racist, whilst the rest of the world actually sees them as one of the worst offenders of intolerance.

The entire first paragraph seems to harness the theme of ‘we are owed this election because of our past.’ How about, ‘we owe ourselves the dignity of making an honest choice on Election Day, casting our vote based on policies rather than skin color?’

(Emphasis mine)