I am an American. I am an African-American woman. I am a Barack Obama supporter. I cast my ballot Tuesday, then stayed up all night watching the results roll in from the presidential race with my family who wanted to witness the historic event together. The evening stirred up a bevy of emotions: anxiety, joy, optimism, pride. I shed tears just thinking that I could possibly witness the election of the first black U.S. president. I never imagined I'd see this in my lifetime.

Our president-elect showed just how momentous this milestone is during his acceptance speech when he told of a 106-year-old voter from Atlanta named Ann Nixon Cooper who "was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin." Obama's election is truly a time for celebration for the African-American community and, I'd argue, the nation.

Did I vote for Obama just because he is black? Certainly not. But he definitely won and lost votes solely for this reason. Yes, he is of mixed race, but let's be honest, we all see a black man.

Our economy -- the number one issue for me in this election -- is in shambles. As the business news editor for AOL, I've watched in horror this year as we've covered a beaten down stock market, the collapse of once-venerable firms like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns and the changing landscape on Wall Street. We've seen a real estate crisis that has resulted in record-level foreclosures and plunging home prices and close to a million jobs lost. I have no doubt that between Obama and John McCain, Obama is the right person for the job during this troubled time for our country.

There's a disturbing trend among home lenders, and it may gain the exposure that it deserves in the wake of the subprime fiasco. Minorities are more likely to hold these so-called toxic mortgages, even when comparing neighborhoods with similar housing prices. According to The New York Times:

Consider two neighborhoods in the Detroit area. One, located in the working-class suburb of Plymouth, is 97 percent white with a median income of $51,000 in 2000. To the east, a census tract in Detroit just inside Eight Mile Road has a very similar median income, $49,000, but the population there is 97 percent black.

Last year, about 70 percent of the loans made in the Detroit neighborhood carried a high interest rate -- defined as 3 percentage points more than the yield on a comparable Treasury note -- while in Plymouth just 17 percent did.

It's hard to attribute that to luck of the draw. It appears that, at least in some areas, minorities are being systematically denied access to mortgages, and that's unforgivable in this country. There are a variety of explanations for this phenomenon: traditional banks are less likely to have branches in areas with large numbers of minorities, and thus borrowers in those areas may gravitate to the subprime lenders that set up shop there.

In any case, this is definitely something that merits congressional investigation. Congressman Barney Frank has been taking a hard look at subprime, and hopefully he will add this issue to the stack of questions he plans to ask industry leaders.

The USA Today wins the prize for the Lamest Commentary to Date on the probable ousting of Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) CEO Stanley O'Neal:

It's a sad day for race relations in this country when a prominent Civil rights leader goes over the line from being provocative to downright offensive. Andrew Young, hired by Working Families for Wal-Mart to improve the giant retailers' image, is stepping down from his position after he was quoted in a Los Angeles paper criticizing (to put it mildly), mom-and-pop stores that operate in urban neighborhoods.

For Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) this is yet another painful day for its public image. It started the week taking political hits from presidential hopefuls. Now that Young can no longer be the face of the kinder, gentler Wal-Mart, who will the company turn to?

The first part of Young's widely quoted comments aren't so bad. He reportedly accused small urban stores of "overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables." That point is well-worn and most city residents will recognize an element of truth to it. There are often small shops in poor neighborhoods that are dirty, expensive and badly run. But we frequent them anyway for convenience since there are few alternatives.

If I had been in the room with Young, I can picture myself waving my hands in his face and saying "stop, stop," after he made that one point. That was provocative enough. But Young went on to vilify ethnic and religious groups that often run small shops in many cities. I won't even begin to take those remarks apart. He is plain wrong on so many levels.

What's sad is that by mixing a half-truth with bigoted remarks, Young has no doubt triggered thousands of painful and damaging debates in homes, offices, stores and bars around the country today. I just read a bunch of the comments on AOL's message boards and already the blame, anger and accusations are flying.

Rather than improving understanding, I fear these debates will create more wounds and resentment between racial and ethnic groups. My only hope is that at least some people talking about this story will use Young's statements as a way to build bridges rather than erect higher walls dividing us all.