this week on CNN and MSNBC don't want you moving in next door to them; neither do the compassionate conservatives over on FOX who are discussing whether or not they should be offended by Senator Obama's "typical white person" comment.  Don't be offended though, it's not because you're black.  None of these folks want a poor brown person, a poor white person or a poor person of any color or gender unloading the contents of his/her '93 Chevy into the foreclosed house down the block.  You see, the great divide in America is not race, it's money.

Money is the great equalizer; having it can bust down the doors of discrimination in the United States faster than any discussion on the racial divide, faster than any legislation, faster than any election.  Money is after all the foundation upon which the American Dream is built.  Yes, we have religious freedom.  Yes, we have political freedom but at the base of all of these freedoms is the freedom to earn a pile of money. 

I grew up worshipping in a small town Baptist church.  One of my first memories of that church is some poor woman being forced out of the church for sexual misbehavior I didn't understand at the time and can't quite pull out of my memory in the present.  I do know that it was a behavior she could probably freely engage in were she a member of virtually any Baptist congregation in the year of our Lord 2008.  For as the pews began to empty in churches around the country it's amazing how quickly the moral high ground shifted.  Divorce, adultery, children born out of wedlock all became if not standards then at least acceptable.  The last Baptist church I belonged to had one of the most uninhibited singles groups in town.  Why?  Did the ten commandments change?  I would like to think that the religious community came to the conclusion that we have "all sinned and come short of the glory of God" but, let's be honest, you have to get them in the doors before you can pass the plate. 

In the nineties I worked in a corporation that was very generous with employee stock options.  You have never seen a social issues Democrat become a pocketbook Republican faster than when a person gets his/her first grasp on some real money.  (At this juncture I feel compelled to point out that one of the finest, most unprejudiced, most generous people I have ever known was a pocketbook Republican at this company, which just goes to prove that no brush paints every picture.)  One of the reasons the Republicans can keep the estate tax debate alive - despite the fact that fewer than 10,000 estates will be subject to it in 2009 - is the hope we all share that someday our estates will be large enough to avoid paying it.

Plain fact is though, if you are poor - no matter your color or gender - you have more in common with other poor people than with people who look like you but have money.  All of this talk about race reminds me of when the Dems get together and raise the minimum wage, it fulfills the need to do something for the poor without really doing much at all.  (Nice though it is for people to have those extra dollars in their pay packets, many companies cut back hours and/or employees to make up for the increased wages they have to pay.)

When people move from poverty to having money, doors open.  Race, age, gender, taste in music, wearing plaid bermuda shorts alll become a lot more acceptable when accompanied by a little green.  Black people driving nice cars in expensive neighborhoods will still, unfortunately, at times be stopped by the police.  Women will still, unfortunately, find that sometimes testicles trump talent.  Brown people will still, unfortunately, be seen by many as "illegal" immigrants not just immigrants; and no amount of money holds off age.  Still, when wealth is created, empowerment is created, opportunity is created.  Empowerment and opportunity for all - and that includes blue class white workers in towns devastated by the loss of manufacturing - have a curious way of easing racial tension; although there will always be that jerk who thinks that anyone who has more than he/she got it only because of color or gender.

Race needs to be discussed, although I dissent from the notion that it has not been discussed previously.  Lessening poverty -  through education, job creation, universal health care, an end to the war in Iraq and a reasoned, consistent immigration policy - will, however, do more to end racism and sexism and ageism than all the "race" round table discussions on all the talk shows on all the news networks in all the land.