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Health & Fitness

It's Perfectly Acceptable For Black People to Vote For Obama Just Because He Is Black

African Americans should not feel guilty about voting for Obama because of his dark skin color, and they should feel empowered to vote against Romney, for no other reason than his religion.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is running a story this weekend on their website titled, "Do black people support Obama because he is black?"

Of course most do! Why wouldn't they?

Most of my white friends who are outwardly racist blow off the continued unequal treatment of those who are not white. Even after 150 years of legal structure changes, the bigotry continues.

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The civil rights laws have done a lot to force people to overcome their often subconscious biases, but from what I understand, if you are not black, you can not truly understand what it's like to grow up in a country that is predominately dominated by white protestant America.  (Though that power is slowly slipping from their grasp according to recent survey's.)

For that reason alone, I think it is perfectly acceptable for African-Americans to vote for Obama only because he is black.

However, this election has a double-whammy. Not only would most African-Americans be voting against their own economic and social interests by voting for Romney, they would also be voting for a man whose belief system includes that people who have dark skin, have dark skin as a punishment from God. (Which we now know it's simply a matter of genetics and natural selection based on environment.  See picture, top right.)

The Book of Mormon according to Wikipedia

And [God] had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God; I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities." (2 Nephi 5:21)

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The Lamanite nation was the original nation to disobey the teachings of the prophets in the Book of Mormon, and the Nephites were the original people to follow said teachings, though the Nephites rebel and repent throughout the book. The curse was also placed on the Lamanites' descendants "because of the traditions of their fathers", (Alma 17:15) which would ultimately "be taken from [them] and be answered upon the heads of [their] parents" (2 Nephi 4:6)

The mark of blackness was placed upon the Lamanites so the Nephites "might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions which would prove their destruction" (Alma 3:7-9). The Book of Mormon records the Lord as forbidding miscegenation between Lamanites and Nephites (2 Nephi 5:23) and saying they were to stay "separated from thee and thy seed [Nephites], from this time henceforth and forever, except they repent of their wickedness and turn to me that I may have mercy upon them" (Alma 3:14).

So, if I were black, I would think it would be perfectly acceptable for me to both vote for Obama because he knows what it's like to be me, and also against Romney for no other reason than that he is Mormon and that Mormonism is in its own words a racist religion.

I, however, am not black. I've been self-employed full time since 2002 and my wife has worked in retail since 2006. We work for a living, and we're voting for Obama in 2012.

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