snood wrote:I want to say something personal about Obama, and him being president.
If Obama were actually elected president of this country, it would deeply and permanently validate me in a way that would be hard to describe.
It would decisively and authoritatively cash that "check" that MLK referred to, when he talked about the promise of this country, always coming back marked "insufficient funds".
It would settle in my mind and heart, once and for all, one question that has been buried in the psyche of persons of color for ages. The question is "Are we truly equal?"
Race is an elusive and treacherous issue. I see polls today that reflect a deep ambivalence and widespread dissonance. People, black and white, believe race to be still a telling factor in daily life in America - but - people all believe the problem to be coming from someone else. It is never they themselves who are harboring the destructive attitudes, it is always their neighbor, or some other people, elsewhere.
If Obama were elected president, I would finally know that all the talk I hear about progress and colorblindness and the land of opportunity, etc, etc, etc, had real substance.
If Obama were elected president, I could go to my grave with an age old anxiety stilled.
I would actually be able to say to a little black boy "If you study and work hard and play by the rules, there is no limit to what you can accomplish in America." People of color still say that to their children, but if Obama were elected president, I could by God actually mean it without the lingering doubts. We see Morgan Freeman (in Deep Impact) or Dennis Haysbert (on '24') play the role, but I submit that that is something we cannot really say with conviction until we've seen it happen.
Now, I know this is a terribly narrow and self-centered way of looking at something with a myriad of other issues involved. I know I'm talking about the office of the most powerful man on this planet as if it were some kind of popularity contest at the local Kiwanis, or something.
But I just wanted to say, on this thread here about the possibility of electing that man - that black man - as President of the United States of America, that dammit, it would mean so very much...
...to me.
Very moving Snood, and certainly understandable.
I trust you can understand, though, why for someone such as myself this is not necessarily a sufficient reason to vote for Obama for president. We are, after all, talking about not only the office of the most powerful man on this planet but the chief executive of our government.
I'm pretty sure you appreciate that simply because someone might not be inclined to vote for Obama does not mean that he or she would not want that little black boy to believe as much as the little white girl, or the little yellow boy or the little red boy that if they study and work hard and play by the rules, there is no limit to what they can accomplish in America.
If Obama were a conservative I would, without doubt, look more favorably on his candidacy, but his lack of qualifications, despite his considerable charisma would cause me to look elsewhere for my favored choice.
I understand your wanting to see the actual delivery of the promise, but I do think the time is here, but perhaps not in the way some would have it.
What I am convinced we will not see, is the election of a person whose public identity is obviously focused on being black, i.e. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or any of the black politicians who have come to power and renown on the basis of their involvement in the Civil Rights movement. Which, I believe, is as it should be. One can chalk it up to whites being afraid to lose their advantages or simply that few groups are going to elect someone who they do not believe represents what they consider to be their group.
Obama, like Colin Powell before him is a viable candidate for president because his public identity is American, not African-American. I hope you will agree that this is a good thing. The things they say do not readily accommodate the creation of narrow groups with which to identify one's self.
We have come to a time when it is actually possible for a very large segment of the population to see a black man as first an American and secondly black. Even if we accept the silly notion that there is some massive conspiracy to associate Obama with Islamists, that would be something of a national step up from trying to associate him with all sorts of homegrown vile and racist bogeymen.
Undoubtedly there are people in America who will not vote for Obama because of the color of his skin or the strangeness of his name. There are also, undoubtedly, people who will not vote for Mitt Romney because of his religion. Both are positions of ignorance, but I truly don't believe they represent majority or even sizeable minority positions. In the end, either position could make the difference in a close election, but to say such a difference is indicative of a national trend or mood would be wrong.
Personally my problems with Obama are (in order)
1) He is a liberal Democrat
2) He is too young and inexperienced
3) His charisma is too strong
Given his parentage, and his upbringing, he is as white as he is black, but I agree that if he were to be elected president it would be a very good sign of where our country has come. However if Hilary Clinton were to beat him in the Democratic primaries or John McCain were to beat him in the national election, it would hardly be a sign that America has not changed.
