"The First Black President" Please respond to the following:

One hundred and forty-five (145) years after the end of the Civil War, the United States elected its first black President. In the primary, Barack Obama was running against a white woman, Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the 2008 election, his opponent was an aging white war veteran, John McCain.

• Agree or disagree with the following statement and justify your answer: "The election of President Obama was not a victory for the civil rights movement but a sign of the increased diversity of the American population, which is generally more willing to accept people of color."

• Do you believe that politics has become an increasingly divisive issue in America? If so, what has caused such polarization among the electorate?