Take it from this black guy:
"My parents immigrated to the United States from India a few years after Dr. King was assassinated. They came looking for an equal opportunity, and they got it, in the Deep South, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My parents wanted only to be judged based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
In 2003, I decided to run for governor of Louisiana, a state where David Duke got 44 percent of the statewide vote in 1990. The pundits said I was insane to even try. Friends worried about my mental stability and begged me not to run. I narrowly lost that first race, but I’ve won every race since then. I wish I had a nickel for every time East Coast political journalists have asked me about discrimination, and I wish I had a dime for every Louisiana voter who has broken those journalists’ ugly stereotypes.
Here’s what I’ve found in Louisiana: The voters want to know what you believe, what you stand for, and what you plan to do, not what shade your skin is. And I think that’s true of the country as a whole: America’s younger generation pays less attention to skin color than the generations that preceded them. (By the way, I noticed recently that the president of the United States, a man with whom I disagree with on almost everything, seems to have darker skin than most Americans. He hasn’t had a problem getting elected.)"
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/the-end-of-race-95875.html#ixzz2d0wDgg3v
