Black voters turned out in force and voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. General Colin Powell endorsed him. An emotional Condoleezza Rice spoke Wednesday of how excited she was to see this historic event. Some are pointing to this as black racism. That's nonsense, and here's why.
We're all aware of the history of race relations in this country. Even those of us who under no circumstances would have voted for Obama can at least breath a sigh of relief: Finally, race is no longer a barrier to the pinnacle of national and world leadership. As a bonus, we can now look down our noses disapprovingly at those backward, racist Europeans: not one black leader to be found on the entire Olde Continent!
Black voters traditionally vote Democratic anyway, so I don't know how a group of people sticking to their voting patterns can be called racist.
General Powell is a doer, has been all his life. He is obviously not content to sit by the fire with grandkids on his knee telling war stories. His has been a life of dedicated service to his country, and it appears he wants to continue serving in some capacity, regardless of which party is in power. I salute him.
Finally, Secretary Rice. A beautiful, scholarly woman of great accomplishments who has personally been touched by racial hatred as a child. Unlike the Clintons' imaginary church burnings, she saw such things for real. Ms. Rice was 8 years old when Klansmen bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing her 11 year old friend Denise McNair. I can understand her becoming emotional at this historic event.
People of all stripes and creeds are celebrating president-elect Obama. Don't sneer. Be joyful at this historic national milestone, and allow that people have a right to celebrate this momentous occasion.
And once he's in office, fight him every step of the way when he works to implement policies you disagree with. To cut him any slack because he is black would be, well... racist!
8 comments:
Awesome summation of a momentous event in our great countries history! I did not vote for him as I don't agree with his policies, but I will say that since he is now President-elect Obama, I will support him just as I supported all others before him. In addition, I will not hesitate to openly state when I disagree with him, or his ideals/policies. As a black man who couldn't bring himself to vote for Obama, I can only hope that this can be a great step forward for all Americans to see that anything is definitely possible in our great country. Furthermore, I hope that people are not blinded to policies/decisions that he makes, or tries to implement, simply because he is black for fear of being deemed racist. After all, to do so is just as you said, racist...
Lastly, I wish that those who voted for him paid attention to his victory speech, especially when he admitted that it can take more than a single term to solve the our countries problems and bring about change. Anyone who is up on the issues knows that changes such as he promised can not happen overnight. In the end, I again wish that we can all unite, as a country and not individuals, behind him and support him, for he has a very difficult task at hand.
Amen, Brother!
This reminds me of Frank Robinson becoming MLB's first black manager. It was a celebrated milestone. But the more acerbic commentators observed that MLB really proved it was done with racism when he became the first black manager to be fired.
Obviously lots of people think we've reached a milestone. I'd call it more of a milestone marking just how far we'll go to create the good feelings of reaching a milestone. I'm of course refering to a fawning press and ever how many percentage points that gave Barak.
Sort of reminds me when my son was younger playing his nintendo. He'd get all excited at "beating" the game even though he had the cheat codes all turned on. But even a 6 year old knows theres an asterick beside that victory.
One of these days we'll see the real deal. And HE will in a lot of ways be cheated by our insistence on instant gratification back in 2008.
Well, it is what it is. Regardless of alleged questionable motives or willful ignorance on the part of Obama voters, here we are.
And I wholeheartedly agree that liberal press bias had to be worth literally millions of votes. Add on that McCain ran a crappy campaign and Obama ran a brilliant one, the economic crisis, Bush fatigue, and you have a sea change. That's politics.
I do see your point: So many wanted this milestone simply for the sake of reaching the milestone...
Regardless of how we got here, we got here though an honest vote, and I don't begrudge anyone their celebration of it.
I don't think that it can really be considered "instant gratification", especially when it has actually taken quite some time for a black candidate to not only be accepted enough to be the choice for a major political party, but also elected by popular vote.
Even though I didn't vote for him, I couldn't help but be choked up a bit recognizing the milestone that was achieved through his election. No matter anyone's viewpoint, we should all recognize the fact that it is the first time for a minority to be elected to such a position in a first-world country.
I meant to add to my earlier comment that regardless of how we got here, it is still a milestone nonetheless.
well now that we have black president (highest executive office of the best country in the world) can we get rid of affirmative action on the basis of race?
That's a good question. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for anyone in the press to ask it.
I've always thought diversity for diversity's sake was bogus. I saw real, earn it yourself diversity in the military. Our armed forces have achieved a true diversity through meritocracy, proof that our highly-capable minorities no longer have much need for affirmative action programs.
I've always thought education enrollment, etc should be based on economic status, not race.
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