Imagine that you are an incredibly idealistic black man with the “unrealistic” objective of becoming President of the United States. You work hard, go to Harvard, run the most amazing presidential campaign in recent history and find a way to do the “impossible.” Then, after your first year, you see a new Harris poll which reveals the following: Two-thirds of conservatives think you’re a socialist, 57 percent believe you to be a Muslim—and 24 percent think you ‘may be the anti-Christ.’

Would these poll results give you much confidence in the intellectual capacity of the American public?

It is only logical that a black man who is smart enough to win a presidential election must have made a deal with the devil. Has racism made us so delusional that we’re willing to accept any lie, any leader, or any misguided ideology to keep us from confronting the depth of our social inequality? Americans have recently done the unthinkable, seriously considering a woman like Sarah Palin, who didn’t even know that Africa was a continent, for the job of president of the United States. I dare say that electing Sarah Palin would be a clear reminder that we’re allowing our racism to destroy us.

I guess if Obama is the anti-Christ, Sarah Palin must be the Virgin Mary. At the very least, she has positioned herself as Glenda “the Good Witch,” building most of her peculiar political career by appealing to those who hate the dark, frightening, socialist demon in the White House. Palin also appeals to those who don’t waste their time with silly things like education, since the poll also showed that those without an education are the ones most likely to believe that Obama is the anti-Christ.

Even LL Cool J is having confrontations with the Good Witch (aka Sarah Palin). In a recent interview, LL took offense to the fact that Sarah is using a video clip of him to promote her new reality TV show, Real American Stories. After seeing the clip, LL stated that Fox had “lifted an old interview I gave in 2008 to someone else and are misrepresenting to the public in order to promote Sarah Palin’s show.”

I was surprised to see the typically apolitical LL Cool J take such a strong stand against Palin and Fox. But this rapper’s stand up moment reminds us of just how deep the Palin/Obama divide has become. It’s not as if Sarah Palin has very many fans who look like LL Cool J. Her appeal in urban America is almost non-existent, and I’ve personally never seen or heard a speech, platform, or agenda item of Palin’s which reflects the views and issues of African-Americans and Hispanics. Perhaps she just forgot to include black and brown people in her agenda, or maybe she thinks she would just be president of an all-Aryan nation.

One thing that’s clear about the existence of Sarah Palin on the political scene is that Palin was undoubtedly created by Barack Obama. Without having Barack Obama to hate, there would be no Sarah Palin for conservatives to love. The Antichrist always needs a nemesis, so perhaps Sarah can bring the purity that the earth so desperately needs after being sunk into the socialist, tree hugging ghetto Armageddon created by Obamacare and other “clearly destructive and irresponsible policies.” Sarah “The Good Witch” is also a reminder of our country’s irrational reaction to racial anxiety. Rather than accepting a strong, black authority figure, we would rather presume that he is the anti-Christ and support an incredibly unqualified person for the presidency.

Obama’s success is a racial litmus test for America, and for the most part, we’re failing that test in ways that even I never would have imagined. America may win the battle against racism, but it will take a very long time.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the initiator of the National Conversation on Race. For more information, please visit BoyceWatkins.com>