As Martin Luther King Day comes to a close, I think that this is a good time to reflect upon how both our nation and our school confront racial issues. Unfortunately, if the current campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is any indication, we remain trapped inside old conventions about race relations. any of the Democratic campaigns have recently focused on the candidacy of Barack Obama. To his credit, Obama has not made the campaign about his ethnic background, but the media has predictably brought it up at nearly every mention of Obama’s name. Along with many stories about his message or his opinions, media personalities constantly ask the same question: “Are Americans ready for a black president?” That this question is still asked – when polls say that over 90 percent of Americans would vote for a black candidate for president – shows that there is a stubborn and visible core of Americans that still clings to regressive identity politics. The latest “kerfuffle” during the primary campaign started when Hillary Clinton stated, on Jan. 7, 2008,, that although Martin Luther King Jr. had an inspiring message and an extraordinary ability to lead the Civil Rights movement, it took the leadership of President Lyndon Johnson to pass the Civil Rights Act. Many figures in the media and supporters of Obama inferred that Clinton was dismissing King’s legacy, and the conversation quickly descended into accusations of the Clinton campaign engaging in race-baiting and commentators using apocalyptic descriptions of some racial divide in the Democratic Party. The most troubling consequence of this episode, however, has been the increased characterization of Obama’s candidacy as being defined by race and the feeling that his victory would be a victory for all African Americans. But this attitude merely perpetuates polarizing racial differentiations. Christopher Hitchens recently stated that “the more that people claim Obama’s mere identity to be a `breakthrough,’ the more they demonstrate that they have failed to emancipate themselves from the original categories of identity that acted as a fetter upon clear thought.” It is only when Obama is viewed as running for president as an individual, as opposed to a representative of his particular racial classification, that we can consider ourselves beyond identity politics. We would all be better served if the media and Obama’s Democrat opponents focused on his voting record instead of his DNA. Conversely, most black Republicans do not face the same intra-party condescension that black Democrats do; how often do Republicans highlight Colin Powell’s or Condoleeza Rice’s race? What makes these leaders exceptional is not their racial identity, but that both have a great deal of individual talent. Likewise, Americans who support Obama should not reduce his greatness to his identity but should attribute it to his many accomplishments. any black Republicans have suffered from real racism at the hands of some progressives, who view any deviation from left-wing ideology as betrayal to the black community. This extremely racist mentality, that all blacks must think the same way or put their identity over their personal beliefs, led to the Anita Hill incident during Justice Clarence Thomas’s nomination hearing, which inevitably wound up being mired in identity politics and even included the hurling of Oreos at then-Senate candidate Michael Steele. I believe that it is also necessary to examine how our university has treated racial issues over the past year, specifically the controversy surrounding the Jena Six movement at Georgetown. In December, one of the Jena Six, Mychal Bell, pleaded guilty to second-degree battery charges and agreed to testify against the other defendants. Bell, and allegedly five others, slammed a student’s head against a concrete beam and beat him until he was unconscious and suffered a concussion. It is unfortunate that the racial undertones which possibly motivated and framed the case obscured it in terms of criminal justice. Bell’s guilty plea should be a lesson to anyone who was swept up by the passions surrounding this case. It is an example of the emphasis our society still places on racial differences and our Regardless of the regrettable incident where three white students (who were all disciplined) hung nooses on a tree in the schoolyard several months inability to think clearly about issues when clouded by identity politics. I guarantee that if the victim and the perpetrators were of the same race, the case would not have elicited such a massive reaction. It was irresponsible for defenders of the Jena Six to rush to judgment about this crime just because some people attempted to turn this into a larger example of racial conflict. artin Luther King successfully organized and drove the Civil Rights movement over 40 years ago, and his final goal, that no one be classified simply by the color of one’s skin, is within reach. Entrenched institutional racism has been almost completely destroyed and the vast majority of Americans’ attitudes about race have changed significantly since King’s time, but our nation needs to stop obsessing about people’s racial classifications and move beyond identity politics if we are to fully realize King’s dream. Many Americans already have, but can the media and its “progressive” sycophants do the same? Stephen Kenny is a senior in the College. He can be reached at kennythehoya.com. AGAINST THE WIND appears every other Tuesday.