When is a racial slur not a racial slur?

In light of Democratic Sen. Harry Reid’s remark that Barack Obama’s "light color and lack of Negro dialect" contributed to his electability, I remember researching my family name once and discovering it in an 1810 Southampton County, Va., federal census alongside that of a woman named Sarah Free Negro.

The woman likely had been freed from slavery, after which she gave herself a last name that today would be out of fashion. I thought when I read that what an honor it was to find my exact same name on the same census form with a woman like Sarah!

But do we do Sarah a dishonor by writing her name out of the American lexicon? I think so. I mean, the word Negro was never a bad word, although it has fallen out of favor today mainly because blacks don't like it and white people want to get beyond the period when the term was used disparagingly.

Could we please put this stuff behind us? Black and white people fought and died for America in the Civil War. They fought and died for this country in both World Wars and today they are shedding blood for us in the Middle East.

Yes, there have been inequities in the past and there will be inequities in the future. That's because we're all different but we're not unequal. Everyone is created in the image of God and to treat our fellow man otherwise is to treat God the same way.

Blacks and whites are Americans under the Red, White and Blue and the sooner political parties put this “gotcha” business behind them, the better off this country will be.