Barack Obama won the 2008 election!!! The first black American president.
I was overseas in Rome at the time. There were posters of him all over the place. One said “Il Mondo Cambia” (“The world changes”), another said, “Yes He Can” and a third said, “Oh yeah”.
Overseas, people seemed to think it was a great day in American history. They were proud of America! It was almost as if Obama had become the president of the world, not just 4.6% of it.
It was not till I got back home to America that I began to hear of the ugly doubts and fears: the flags at half-mast, white people buying guns, the Associated Press asking whether whites should be frightened.
Sad. But what is sadder still is that it does not surprise me. There is something dark and ugly in the American soul that is still far from dead. A side that has been there for hundreds of years and which Sarah Palin tried to call forth.
Obama’s victory speech – the whole thing, not the little bits that CNN kept showing – was so beautiful it made me cry. No speech has ever affected me like that. I know he will be a great man, one of the best presidents America has ever had. A good thing too since we seem to be entering bad times.
Of all the reactions I liked that of Condoleezza Rice the best, a black Republican who remembers the Jim Crow South. I forget what she said, but the look on her face – the joy, the pride and the happy wonder – said it all.
The best newspaper headline: “In Our Lifetime”. How many of us even a year ago ever thought we would live to see this day?
It seems too good to be true. So good that it makes me afraid that something terrible will take it all away.
Barack Obama is only a man. He cannot walk on water. He cannot cast out demons from the American soul. He cannot work wonders: America will remain divided by race. But a black president is still a huge step forward and a cause for hope.
Most white people voted for McCain, it is true, yet Obama won because race in America is changing: partly because it is not as white as it used to be, partly because the bad old Jim Crow ideas of race are dying out (even as the more subtle ones of colour-blind racism live on).
If nothing else, with a black man as the commander-in-chief and a black woman as the first lady – the closest thing America has to a king and queen – white people will never be able to think about blacks quite the same way again.
And, if nothing else, my two sons, 11 and 13, who take Obama’s victory for granted, being too young to understand how wonderful a thing it is, they will know – better yet, take for granted – that they can do anything they set their minds to.
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Welcome back and good post.
The Obama victory was an important milestone in several respects. The racial milestone is obvious. I would note that, though a majority of white voters voted republican, as they have for the past several elections, a larger percentage of white voters voted democratic (Obama) than in elections back to at least Jimmy Carter.
More important from my perspective is the leap from low-brow, lowest common denominator to lofty intellectual in terms of our national leader. I’m glad that Obama figured out how to crack the “Bubb-ocracy” that has shadowed our nation with its dullard sneer for the past 8 years.
Like Agabond, I also harbor a fear that something will break this. I also recognize that Obama is just a man. However, he is a man who, in the words of those who know him, spends more time listening than talking. This trait will hold him in good stead.
The effect of the election as an inspiration to African American youth was nicely summarized by a friend of mine, an African American man who runs a charter school that focuses its mission on “at-risk” black youth, especially boys:
“The psychological effect on African Americans of this election and the Presidency of Barack Obama will be profound. I reflect on the runner Roger Banister in the 1950’s when he was the first to break the 4 minute mile. Within a year 30 other people broke the 4 minute mile. This is what I call the ‘Banister effect.’ Banister broke not only a track record, more importantly he broke a psychological barrier for others. I am predicting that we will see an ‘Obama effect.’ In fact I saw it on Friday and it brought me to tears once again. I gave out awards to A and B honor role students. About 50% of our middle schools students received an award. I told them by next quarter, I want to see 100% of the students on the A and B honor roll. Then I asked the question can we achieve this goal and to my joy and surprise for the next 5 minutes 100% of these African American boys began to chant simultaneously, ‘Yes We Can! Yes We Can!'”
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I knew you’d do a post on his win. I feel psychic. Lol welcome back!
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ha ha, you stole that from ‘mc hammer’.
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welcome back!
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How was Italy? I’d love to go. My husband has been twice, but being from England, it wasn’t that much of a trek for him as it would be now living in the States. I was on the verge of tears when Obama won. I called my mother who is nearly 70 and she was happy to be alive to witness this. Never in her lifetime would she have expected to see this. Unfortunately, I know of people who were victims of vandalism because they had Obama signs in their yards. Someone slashed their pumpkins and stuck McCain signs in them. Pretty childish and petty, I think.
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Not sure where you are looking, but where I am, in New York, it was everyone cheering for Obama. The fact that you said Most White people voted for McCain is just not true. Anyhow, perhaps in other parts of the country – but where I was , people were opening their windows and shouting – people of all colors.
The best part of his victory so far is that I have seen less Scarface T shirts and more Obama gear. Nice to see.
Welcome back from Italy.
We all got Obama in there – do not bring it back
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According to CNN’s exit polls, McCain won 55% of the white vote:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#USP00p1
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Italy was great. It went by too fast. But it is still good to be back.
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Bubb-ocracy goes back not 8 years but 16.
If Hillary Clinton had won we would have been under de facto dynastic rule for at least 24 years. I am glad we avoided that one.
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