Photo from the The Associated Press

There's been a lot of talk about the photos of Barack Obama wearing traditional Somali while on a visit to Kenya. Most of the controversy is focused on whether the emails were forwarded by members of Hillary Clinton's campaign as a smear. I doubt Clinton had anything to do with it, and if she did, then shame on her, but that isn't my point here.

What scares me about this is that people still consider this to be such a negative thing. That Americans still consider association with Islam to a negative factor in 2008 shows how vulnerable our nation is to racial and religious prejudices. We marginalize gays, wax misogynistic about the first potential female president, and think references to lynching African-Americans can be made casually. Have the lessons of the Civil Rights Era been lost on us already?

Remember back when Keith Ellison wanted to be sworn in on the Quran and the conservatives had a fit over it because it somehow "undermines American civilization?" Remember when Barack Obama had to struggle to defend himself against allegations that he was a Muslim? He stood by his Christian convictions, and the controversy has largely died away, but it still angers me that people feel such hatred toward Muslims that the idea of him being a Muslim would even be a issue.

Women, gays, and minorities have suffered so much under our system of prejudice, and we learn nothing. Instead of ending the injustices, we blame rape victims and downplay the dangers gay youth face every day, and I'm getting sick of it. It's time we grew up.