I have waited to post until I had given this some thought. First, there are other "people of color" on Mudcat and I don't believe that Azizi necessarily represents their opinions. At least, they have not chosen to comment. If Mudcat is difficult for Azizi, let's discuss it.
Second, Mudcat is difficult for many sub-groups of folkies. The born again contingent gets worked over regularly, The "fallen Catholics", the Orange contingent, the IRA, Spaw, the obscene lyrics group, The "purists" etc -all are regularly subjected to posters who choose not to understand their posts or simply can not. We have a few ladies who read sexist discrimination into every male post and then accuse any woman who doesn't agree of being sheep. I think what I am trying to say here is that at least some of the time Azizi's experiences cause her to read too much into perfectly innocent posts. If you interpret it as racist or simply off the point EVERY TIME, maybe you need to look at your expectations.

I am an atheist who prays - FOR not TO. But every time it comes up I get raked over the coals by both sides.

Lastly, re: the elections - for the first time in American history we have a black man and a woman being seriously considered to represent a major party in the upcoming presidental election. Race is an issue. Sex is an issue. Were it not, there would have been female and black candidates long before now. We can pretend they are not or we can deal with it. But to pretend that this is not a momentous event in American history is in my opinion blind. Do I care - no. I won't vote for Clinton just because she is a woman and I won't vote for Obama simply because he is black. Many will vote for them and many will refuse to vote for either based on their sex or color. Either to me is racism/sexist.

Have I missed the point?