Am I white enough? Seems like an odd question to ask and I wouldn't have any idea of what that meant or how to answer that. But this seems to be an all too common question in the black community. When a black person puts forth a certain opinion, acts, or talks a certain way, they might be accused of not being "black enough."

This confounds me, especially when black leaders are pushing for an equal opportunity for the American dream and strive for a so-called "color blind society." There are many individual groups and activities that are formed solely for blacks with an emphasis on exclusionary practices directed mostly towards white Americans. But some of these groups also practice a heinous discrimination against other black Americans based solely on ideological differences. It appears that everything that these groups purport to fight for, they themselves practice on a daily basis.

A perfect example of the exclusionary practices in the black community comes right from the legislators who were elected to help eliminate such practices. The Black Caucus is supposed to be a group of black legislators who gather , with public funds, to ensure that the black community isn't stepped on or overlooked in the political process. Fair enough, blacks have had many hardships to endure in America. But when Gary Franks, a black Conservative, wanted to join, he was summarily excluded simply due to his political ideology. This can only provide a one-sided and most likely skewed view of the what the goals of this particular group should be.

A terrible detriment to the black community is the constant demonization of successful blacks simply because they don't preach victimization, yet they promote self sufficiency. Arguably the highest ranking black in the American political system is Supreme court justice Clarence Thomas. But black leaders and groups shun him for being conservative and even simply for having a white wife. Thomas is one person who has been accused of not being "black enough" because he refuses to play the race card to promote a black agenda. Schools which have predominantly black high school students have asked Justice Thomas to visit their schools or to offer commencement speeches at graduations, only to have black school officials override the wishes of the students because they accuse Thomas of being an "Uncle Tom."

During the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal I sat befuddled over the constant excuses that black civil rights and religious leaders kept dishing out in defense of Clinton. But when the Thomas confirmation hearings were taking place, less serious and less credible charges were highlighted by these same black leaders in their denouncement of Thomas' alleged actions.

This isn't just limited to black conservatives though. Early in the spring of 1999, TV talk show mogul Oprah Winfrey faced a storm of insults and accusations during a show dealing with myths of black victimization. She was berated by blacks in the audience and she too was accused of not being black enough. There is no way that you can accuse Oprah of being a conservative in any shape or form, but due to the topic of this particular show she drew great criticism and disdain from black audience members. This show was to air during sweeps week, but due to the voracity of the attacks against the well loved host, the show never aired.

There appears to be a duplicitous message in the mainstream black leadership, and frankly it is counter productive to the stated goals of the black populace. They say that race shouldn't matter, but if you're black and successful, but don't support the sometimes outrageous and sometimes racist views of Civil Rights leaders such as Al Sharpton and Kaleel Muhamed , you are labeled as a traitor to your race. If you don't espouse the stories of numerous hurdles that you had to overcome to succeed, due to the inherent racism present in America, you cannot be taken seriously by the minority community.

As far as I'm concerned, there is only one race, the human race. If we expect to coexist in harmony, racist and biased views have to be highlighted and nationally exposed in the black community as they are in the white community. As the saying goes, we didn't all come over on the same ship, but we're all in the same boat.