YES WE DID!!!
Ok...now it's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work. One man can't fix this country by himself.
One thing that strikes me as rather interesting is that all the reporters have been asking the obvious question of the obvious people - did any African-American think they'd live to see the day a black man would be elected president? And this is right and proper. Thing is, I haven't seen anyone asking this of the white folks too, even though to my mind it's actually just about as important, seeing as white folks have been half of this struggle. I guess it's just not as dramatic and doesn't make for nearly as good press as the 'underdog finally wins' angle. So on behalf of this white person, I'd just like to say that I personally find this event something of a relief. I thought I'd probably see it eventually, though not this soon...but I'm
glad to see it.
How to put this? For some of us, at least, and perhaps especially in the south, there is pressure from the past to think of black folks in an inferior light - however much we may consciously know and choose to believe otherwise. It is shameful. I remember once having a conversation with my grandmother in which she earnestly tried to convince me that black people are genetically inferior to whites. I was having none of it, of course, but family pressure is a terrible thing to try to resist. There is some pressure of a somewhat different sort from my parents as well. Both of them deny being racist, and I believe them in the 'I don't want to burn crosses on people's yards and lynch them' sort of way. But I can't help but think that on some very deep level they are terrified of blacks. They both grew up in the fifties, when segregation was in full swing, and they both saw all of the bad things being done and must have known it wasn't right. And now, based on various comments I've heard them make ever since I've known them, I think subconsciously they are terrified that if blacks come into power they will demand vengeance and retribution. And it's a sad fact that fears and neurosis are two of the things that tend to be transmitted through families from generation to generation unless some deliberate choices are made.
I've had the good fortune to have had a good education, and to have been taught to think for myself, and to have had the wherewithal to make those deliberate choices. And now, I'd like to think that the upcoming generations of people will be more focused on putting the whole stupid thing behind us and focus instead on working together to forge a future that is beneficial to everyone - Black, White, Latino, Asian, Native American, whoever. I know that modern generations are used to communicating through the internet, where you just don't know what colour someone's skin is unless they tell you or post a picture, and that in that context people therefore are judged more by the content of what they write and post. They are learning in a very natural way to judge others by the content of their character instead of by the colour of their skin. I think Reverend King would have liked it.
I don't think Obama's election will allay my parents' fears, at least not anytime soon. But somehow, on some subtle but important psychological level, I personally find that the mandate of an entire living nation somehow outweighs the pressure from my ancestors. And this is a good thing. It's a relief.
Oh, and just for the record - I voted for Obama not because of the colour of his skin, but because he has his eyes on the 21st century rather than the 20th. Damn it, I wanna have Star Fleet someday.