Jean and the race card?

I am going to repost an old blog that has recieved considerable attentuion from a particular socialist and I am going to reprint excerpts from our discussion surrounding Mrs. Jean and I will let you the reader decide who's right.

I pulled this excerpt from a decent enough lefty in calgary www.calgaryobserver.blogs.com or www.liberalcalgary.blogspot.com "I think Paul Martin picked the ideal candidate, especially at this time when Canada is beginning to see more racism and discrimination against people not born in Canada. Michaëlle Jean should serve as a role model and reminder to everyone across this wide land of ours that Canada truly is the land of golden opportunities (and not our neighbour to the south) and that anyone - from the East or West, from Canada or overseas, can make it big here."

Me: Once again the left assumes Jean's only attribute is the fact she is black. Race is a superficial trait and is of no importance to progressive thinkers. What makes her an ideal candidate to be a governer general, or at least should, is that she represents Canadian values (i.e independence and productivity. And once again you are not born into your values. Human beings choose their own values.Leftist never realize this. For the left value choices are always the result of external factos. I.E race, community, class, maybe height or eye color, but never the person who's doing the choosing. Race is non issue in any progressive society.

He responded by pointing out
"A country or society is only truly free if everyone in it is given an equal opportunity to compete. If a hospital bill results in your condo or house being foreclosed, we cannot really speak of a free society, or can we?"

Implying either that minorities are not free to pursue their own lives in Canada or that they are less able to due to some inherent reason.

I responded by pointing out that people are not ascribed values and that they CHOOSE values...
There is nothing racist about choosing values. The definition of value is “something which someone works to achieve and maintain”. Alberta values independence, productivity, honesty, integrity and liberty, and these in no way are tied skin color or religion. Values are chosen and people should be accountable for the choices they make. The left assumes skin color is a person’s only identity as if there is no difference between a black communist and a black man that believes in freedom. You display a lot of ignorance in assuming that values are inherent and based on race, because what you are saying in effect that she is at some disadvantage because she's black, so we should reward her acheivments, because they were acheived inspite of her blackness... and this progressive? No. Leftism is a racist pardigm. Once race has been written into law, government can use the law to discriminate.