Racism and Government

I have been watching more news coverage than normal lately for some reason that I cannot explain. Starting with the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, I have been hearing a lot of talk by government officials that if said by me in my workplace would get me into trouble. If you consider the confirmation hearings a job interview, then some of the lines of questioning were inappropriate and in some cases may even have been against the law. Race was brought into the discussion many times. Why is race so important in the United States today? Why haven't we learned that it does not matter what race you are, as long as you can do the job? I personally don't believe that race should be used to either give someone a job or to exclude someone from a job. I have found in my life that most people who talk about race are racist in some way.