How you denigrate African-American women when you lump them all into one pile. It's not surprising, though. Many like you believe that if you're Black, you support all things Black. If you're a feminist, you support all things feminist. That's old-time stuff, Thrasher. Old-time thinking.

But let's examine this a bit. Eons ago when I was working for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, I had overall-clad farm boys come up to me and tell me they were superior to me because they were males. I had suit-clad African-American men come up to me and inform me that I had to wait for my rights until they had theirs. Lately, we old feminist have to contend with young women saying "I'm not a feminist" while enjoying the fruits of our hard work. African-American women working alongside me had/have to deal with all of those things, too.

You assume that women who were committed to Clinton's campaign should jump ship because a young African-American man comes upon the scene. That Clinton should step aside and wait her turn, just like those suit-clad guys who told me I had to wait my turn. Well, I hope we've moved beyond that point in time and narrow thinking. And I think that women who happen to be both Clinton supporters and Black believe the woman who has been in the race the longest shouldn't back off, and are tired of that nonsense.

You do a disservice to all women when you lump us into a certain category called "women's vote" and you do a disservice to African-American women when you think they should all support an African-American man.

Every candidate says what she/he thinks will gain votes. Well, except for Dennis Kucinich possibly...and then I'm not sure. A white male Democrat today used the term "shuck and jive" in referring to "the other candidates" but we know who he was making reference to. That's after Jesse Jackson, Jr. proposed the idea that Hillary faked tears (did anyone see them running down her face, by the way?). Heck, we don't need republicans to bring down out side. We're doing it ourselves....as usual!

We Democrats have the most diverse set of candidates in history. All of them are qualified. All of them have good ideas. One happens to be a woman. One happens to be an African-American man. One happens to be a white male. One that just dropped out happens to be Hispanic in ethnicity. Instead of throwing away our possibility of taking back the White House from the most repressive and damaging administration in history, we need to support our side. Not bicker about trivial things.

Oh, and I think that Coretta Scott King would not say anything. I think she had the common sense of many who have been through the wars. She would have known that it was not driving a wedge, but campaign rhetoric. Just as, by the way, Jesse Jackson, Sr. must have reacted to his son's comments. He's probably already advising Junior not to do that again! Just as African-American women who support Clinton are advising her similarly.

As for me, I still remain undecided.

My husband and I are both long-time feminists. By definition, feminists are those who believe in women having the tools to attain rights (and responsibilities) equal to those of men. By our family's definition, feminists are those who also WORK for those issues. Our daughers have followed our lead and are also feminists.

He's supporting Clinton. I'm undecided. One of our daughters is supporting Obama, another prefers Edwards. We're all feminists! And what that means is we believe in the ability of woman to support candidates in the same way men do---based on our own preferences and what those candidates say to us. Not because one is a woman, or another is an African-American, or a third is a Caucasian male. In other words, we see Clinton as a candidate. We see Obama as a candidate. We see Edwards as a candidate. That's how it should be.

Having said that, I totally agree with Rebecca Traister that upon hearing the white male pundits try to bury Hillary, I also would have cast a vote for Clinton without hesitation. Yes, I know, that's how we knee-jerk liberals (and feminists) are---but I'm proud to be both.

What bothers me the most is the ugliness of the ongoing battle between Obama and Bill Clinton (because Hillary is allowing him to fight it for her rather than do it herself--and, by my definition, feminists should stand up and fight their own battles). Frankly, I wish Bill Richardson would stay in the race if for no other reason than to referee things. And give us all someone to fall back on if the other three self-destruct. Oh, and do I need to remind folks that Hispanics are also a minority in this country?

...for Katrina. Did Barack? Just wondering.

The problem today is that up-and-coming young African-Americans and women forget that we old folks were the ones who fought the battles, suffered the defeats, continued the fight, attained small victories--and then larger ones, went to the legislatures and Congress, took our issues to the courts, educated people, and held fast to our beliefs so that our daughters and sons would have the freedom to be themselves and not just "a woman" or "a Black person." Unfortunately, too many refuse to acknowledge (and thank) us for our efforts.

As a feminist who fought the battles on ERA and other issues important to the development and advancement of women, I feel empathy for Jesse Jackson and others of his era who fought the battles against racism and worked for the advancement of African American men and women. If he (we) didn't do what we did - sometimes working in concert with each other, by the way - there would be no Barack Obama running for president, nor would there be a Hillary Clinton running for president.

We paved the way for them. Enough said!