We Shouldn't Be Surprised

The Republican primaries have been interesting to say the least. From the rise and fall of Herman Cain to the embarrassing gaffes of Rick Perry to the  recent onslaught of racist comments made by some of  the candidates.   Sadly, the undercurrent of racism doesn't surprise me. I realize that minorities, African-Americans in particular, are not looked upon favorably by a lot of people in this country. I'm also not surprised that double standards based on race still exist. What does surprise me is the overreaction to these incidents. When I hear these ignorant remarks I simply make note of who made the comment and place that person in my "ignorant" box.  My advice to the African-American community is to focus your collective energy on things you can control, like turning out in large numbers at the polls to ensure no one that holds to racist ideologies ever takes office.  It's ok to be outraged.......for about 5 minutes.  After that we need to move on and not let these people distract us. Racism is alive and well in this country and will probably never go away. We need to come to grips with that fact. In spite of that we can still take control of our communities. Let's focus on that.