But I'm sitting here watching Chuck Todd and the excitement just hit me. It is something when you actually allow yourself to contemplate it--this country could potentially have a black president. My God.
I'm an old white guy who has long worked and supported liberal causes and I can't believe it. It makes me so proud to be an American at this time in our history.
Here's a personal story from last Sunday. I was checking out at the grocery store and the young, black clerk saw my Obama t-shirt and said to me, "I like your shirt, do you think he's really going to do it."
I said, "absolutely."
Then both of us--one big young black man and big old white guy started crying--right in the middle of a market in Beverly Hills.
I'm counting down the days Ta'Nehisi. As the days dwindle down and no major stories occur (I'm counting the "illegal aunt" story as minor), my heart starts to beat faster and then anxiety about the true state of racial animosity in America sets in.
3 more days.
P.S. How exciting is Cheney's endorsement of McCain
I feel like crying almost every day. And most of all - when I hear certain things in Obama's speeches - about others who have stood up for us so we have to stand up now, about being one America, none of us being real Americans.
When I heard Obama's NH speech, I was so moved because he was writing the story of progressive change back into the American story, into what it means to be a patriot. The best of America is the America that has tried to perfect itself and he reminds us of that and urges us to do more. The right has owned Americanism far too long - We need to take that back as we go forward.
I've already voted and I'm planning on doing get out the vote work on Sunday at least. I hope everyone out there pitches in!
I hope so. I sincerely hope so - equally, for the positive symbolism of Obama, and for fear of the ugly reality of McCain / Palin.
But. Last Sunday McCain said on teevee that he "could guarantee" that he'll be the winner on Monday.
OK. I'm hoping this is something received by my tinfoil hat antenna. But for a crowd that has made a career of rogue war, torture, debauchery of the Constitution, politicization at the most mundane and the most august levels of government, and which came into power in 2000 on a highly dubious basis - stealing (another) election wouldn't really be much.
I sure hope to be eating these words late Tuesday night. Let freedom ring.
I was thinking about this today. I was born in 1984 and remember being vaguely aware of Bush 41, but Bill Clinton was really the first president who I actually followed, and he was kind of what I thought of when you said "president" -- a generic white, smart, ostentatiously culturally southern Democratic centrist-technocrat. (Imagine the one-eighty my little ass did when this Dubya joker strutted onto the scene!)
Fast forward to...well, three days from now. The implication is simple but extraordinary: Assuming Obama wins and serves two terms, then for the generational cohort born between 1998 and 2008 or so, a black guy will be the first president that they are generally aware of. It will be what they think of when you say "president." It will be genuinely a little jarring to them when (if!) we elect Obama's non-white successor in 2016. (Patrick '16 anybody? Get on board!) A white dude as president? Imagine that!
Now, all this isn't to understate the impact of our traditional culture -- it will always be the case that the 43 guys in the history books before Barack are old white guys of some strain or another, and that won't disappear, and it shouldn't. It's part of our past, and many of those men have been good and worthy leaders.
But when we talk about the revolutionary aspect of electing a black president, we tend to focus -- not crazily, I think -- on the impact of this on boomers and oldies who never thought they'd see the day. But those people have seen old white guys come and go for decades -- for them, Obama is an achievement, a proud one, but not a fundamental paradigm shift. He's just an interesting and heartening twist in a history that's been getting their hopes up and dashing them for decades. The jaundice has set in already.
But for a new generation, there will be no preoccupation with the fraught legacy of the civil rights movement, whether Bill was really the "first black president," what to do with al and Jesse, etc., etc. -- there will just be a vague but definite sense that a black dude in the white house is more or less standard operating procedure. Think about that. This will be the first generation to grow up hearing their white parents say stupid shit about black folks, then look over to the TV and see a black guy running a country full of all different colors of folks, and by all indications, doing it pretty well. That's a massive, massive shift and it's why I DO think an Obama presidency will transform race in this country, but that the impact also may not be clear until about 5-10 years after his term ends, when all these kids start growing up and becoming the parents of the next set of kids. And the long list of old white men in their history books will have one very visible, immutable exception.
"Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning."
Watching that Mavis Staples You Tube video above, I wonder if the older gentlemen, who gets harrassed, and just keeps walking and puts his hat back on with such quiet dignity, is still alive to vote?
I teared up at something in the globe and mail today. It showed a pic of like 5 little black kids in 1966 sitting in front of a boarded up house in Alabama I think. Someone had written on the boards "freedom is near". The photo caption said Obama would have been a young kid at the time,like five or six. On the bottom half of the paper it showed Obama today with his supporters and refereced the Martin Luther King speech. Tears!
There is an excerpt from Clinton's '97 inaugural speech where he talks about race and religion and the 21st century, and how if America can get over its issues there is potential for great things. Worth reading I'd say. I hope my Barry O shirts arrive by Tuesday...I will be cheering in Canada. Fingers crossed.
I've got that thirty-something Jewish friend of mine. Pessimist like crazy. In 2004 I thought it was going to be a Kerry landslide (I based my prognostication in the shitty place the country was). He was thinking that the election was going to be stolen anyway, that the country had no route to salvation.
This year I have been very optimistic and he, not so much. Well, he called me yesterday to tell me he was finally believing we were going to win. Then he starting crying.
Early voting in Georgia monday I teared up in line watching much older african americans in line knowing that in their lifetime they were not allowed to vote, and now they have the opportunity to vote for president of african ancestry. It shows that We have come a long way in the span of a lifetime.
Every time I get that giddy feeling (swiftly followed by panicked paranoia) I log on and make ten Obama phonebank calls. It's like some sort of anti-jinx ritual.
It's as if keeping everything in my peripheral vision can somehow keep it going until it's real. But I'm still taking Tuesday off and hitting the streets with the local canvassing team to MAKE it real.
The moment that brought it home for me was watching one black father vote with his two-year old daughter on his hip and another black father vote while trying to corral his very excited 8-9 y-o daughter.
I'm excited that we are not only electing a black man, but a black family.
I'm with you TNC, this has made me so excited, many times. But, let's all remember to be ever-vigilant, cause these mo-fos have stolen the last two elections, so don't think they won't try it again, those electronic voting machines are flipping all over the place...peep what Oprah went thru... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/31/oprah-opts-for-early-voti_n_139869.html
I was just thinking this morning - how would you possibly write an inaugural address for the first black president of the U.S.? How can you articulate what that means in the history of power in this country? Back when I was an undergraduate in 2000 or 2001 I took a class called the American Presidency and I remember thinking, "I wonder if we will have a black president in my lifetime?" And here we are 7 or 8 years later and we're this close.
Building off of what Dan said above, imagine if Obama is president for 8 years and then a woman or another non-white guy is elected for the next 4-8 years! People who are becoming politically aware today will have an entirely different idea of what a "president" is!
ty: "It helps that he's likely to be such a good black president. If this dude were Black John Kerry or Black George Bush, I'd be a lot less fired up."
the day we'll know that racism in this country is finally dead is the day we elect a shitty black president. do you know hard it is for a black politician to break out nationally? Barack Obama is literally the only one. he had to be twice as good as everyone else at every step of his career and even then he was really, really lucky.
so yes in a perverse sense i look forward to the time of Black George Bush.
Started thinking that about a week ago and realized that for all I'd said to class after class that it was too reasonable not to happen, and sooner rather than later, that I hadn't actually believed it. Can't wait to see what it feels like.
raft writes: "i look forward to the time of Black George Bush."
Okay, but make it the father, not the son. If I see another Dumbya in the White House my eyes will shoot out of my skull and innocent zoo pandas or schoolteachers or Wal-Mart shoppers might get hurt. And it will be your fault.
I know, I know, I know! Every so often it hits me and I can hardly believe it. Is it really true?
Well, it's not true yet. Work to do. I can't let myself believe it yet. Too much can go wrong and I wouldn't put it past those thieves in power to try to steal this one too.
It will be truly amazing if he wins. I wish I could keep my ballot.
It will also be amazing how he won. David Broder said the night Obama gave his speech at DNC 2004, 'Its like watching Tiger Woods play his first [major] tournament.' Tiger won The Masters by a record 12 stroke margin. Obama will have shattered a few records with a win.
my 13 year-old son gets it. every time we look at each other, we either high-five or do a terrorist fist jab, and then I start to cry, and he says "moommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm". My 10 and 11 year-olds both know that this is a "big deal", and know enough history to know why, but they really just want Obama to win, and don't want to talk about it beyond that. we don't have tv, so they miss a lot of the hype. On election night, I plan on making them all huddle around my little laptop to watch critical parts of the coverage..........
I had that moment in September of last year after I decided to support Obama. Is that weird? Not to brag, but at the same time, I had this feeling that I knew he would be the next president. He just seemed an order of magnitude better and more impressive than almost anyone else running - the only other one to come close to impressing me, although the Dem side was very impressive this time, was Ron Paul. I also really identified with his growing up between two cultures, not knowing exactly who he was, with his obvious nerdiness, with his measured style of thinking and inclusive problem-solving approach.
Anyway, after I made this decision, and realized that I had quickly internalized a certainty that he would be the next president, I was like, "holy shit -- black president! Awesome!"
I'm 40 y.o. and grew up hearing AND BELIEVING that an African-American could not and would not be elected President. I have a 4 y.o son who looks just like a young Barack Obama. I voted for Obama because I agree with his policies but, just as important, I want my son to grow up believing that he can be President.
I will be crying on Tuesday night because of how far African-Americans have come. But I will also be crying when thinking about how far my son can go.
TNC I think you posted a link to this video way back during convention time, but I was always struck by the real emotion displayed by juan williams of fox news after michelle's speech:
If Obama wins, seeing the reaction of black america will be my personal highlight.
That being said, I'm also fearful of the reaction if he loses. I see an entire generation of not only blacks, but young progressives in general just giving up on politics.
I feel where you're coming from tho, I would have bet my life we'd never see this day.
raft: the day we'll know that racism in this country is finally dead is the day we elect a shitty black president.
since i know tnc is a sports fan, let me analogize. in the nba, there have now been so many black coaches that it is of no consequence at all, racially, when one gets hired - or fired. it is just a fact: coaches get hired, coaches get fired. isaiah just did a crappy job with the knicks. if he were white, it would have been just as crappy a job. doc rivers is a champioship coach. period. that's the way it should b>e, and maybe that's the way it will be, in politics and the corporate world, led by an obama presidency.
I keep considering what an Obama presidency will do for us, not just within the US but in healing divisions with the rest of the world.
Aside from everything else, maybe we can put the damned Boomer incessant Culture/Vietnam/whatever war to rest and realize that none of that is important in light of dealing with the challenges that face us?
For me, the possibility of it all overwhelmed me the night of January 3, 2008, in Iowa, when Barack began with
They said this day would never come.
They said our sights were set too high.
They said our country was too divided,
too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose.
But on this January night,
at this defining moment in history,
you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do.
What will be the reaction of the black man on the street if Obama goes on to win Tuesday? What should we expect that night? Will it be the same sort of 'celebration' that occurs after a city's basketball team wins the big championship?
This will be the biggest day in African American history since O.J. was acquitted, what should we expect?
Zoe,
"Fingers crossed for a landslide too big to steal...."
You have nothing to fear. Your side controls the media, has 6 times the money, and has been using Acorn to inflate the voter rolls in a bunch of states. Not that Obama wouldn't be the favorite to win anyway, given the stock market crash, but David Axelrod & Co. have been extra careful.
Confession: I was surfing a couple of lefty food-fight sites, and the thought came to me: "this will be the biggest pigfucker smackdown in my lifetime". I.e., all the rednecks get to suck on it hard just this once.
Then I came here and read some of the comments, so proud and jubilant but no vindictiveness, and I became ashamed of associating Obama's triumph (and America's, even the bitters who hate Obama, their country as much as mine is greater for Obama winning) with such a petty thought. So take a bow, y'all get it. And (not that anyone here needs to be told, but to our side in general) if you meet someone from the other side after it's over, don't taunt them, but share your joy if you can.
Fred freds: "What will be the reaction of the black man on the street if Obama goes on to win Tuesday? What should we expect that night? Will it be the same sort of 'celebration' that occurs after a city's basketball team wins the big championship?"
Hey, Fred, how many times a day do you change your underpants?
You know, reading this, I had this smartass comment ready, but then, I couldn't write it. My hands started shaking as I even thought about typing it. I've been so wound up about this election. I'm going to take this and write a serious post about it.
thanks, Coates.
Both my parents were born in the Jim Crow South. For me, this election is for them, and for my great-niece, all of 7 months. The world of her great-grandparents is something she will only know in history books, yet it is a history to be honored and respected, for they suffered and fought so that she could only know of the world through history books.
On November 3rd, 2004, heartbroken along with many of my other left-coast liberal friends and colleagues, I managed a wry smile and half-jokingly raised my fist to my co-workers and said "Obama '08!"
I swear, I tell the truth.
But I never expected him to run.
He ran.
And I never expected him to get the nomination.
He did.
And then I worried and fretted that America would never be able to elect a black man, that circumstances and small-minded fear would block his chances.
And now--to our collective amazement--we stand together on the cusp of history.
We are more than ready to do the real work; rich, poor, gay, straight, black, white, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Asian, Latino, Native Americans and all of us together--this can be a great nation if we want it to be.
I've said many times that I never expected Barack to walk on water; he won't take his oath over the Bible and wave a tribal Kenyan staff and fix our problems as if by magic. But we will at least have something we've been missing in this delusional, delayed young 21st century:
A chance.
I can't wait. And I try to be not afraid...to hope.
I hear you. My mom and dad just came to visit me here in Chicago for the week, and we were walking around outside the chain link fence they've set up around tuesday's rally site in Grant Park. We were standing there and my dad just started bawling. Me too, of course. We're white, and find it overwhelming.
They grew up in Chicago in the '40s and '50s, and were college students in Illinois in the '60's when the civil rights movement thundered into the state. They saw the white flight hollow out neighborhoods - families were politically split apart. My maternal grandfather worked at International Harvester with blacks, and had no problem with them, but my grandmother was violently racist. Both my mom and dad worked on behalf of the civil rights movement, but it just got way too intense, too difficult, too much hate.
A story they still don't like to tell still haunts my dad. My parents were grad students at U of I when there was a big flap about fair housing - the mayor of Champaign and his cronies were dead set against letting blacks move in. An open meeting about housing grievances was held with some sort of visiting federal authority figure (I still don't know who). It was a pretty tense scene, with students there to voice opposition to the discriminatory policies in place. Then the mayor stood in the meeting, right next to my dad, and said "You don't have to listen to these people". My dad, outraged, stood up and yelled "You can't do that!". At which point, the mayor punched him. Really decked him. Not a small feat, since my dad had been an all-state football player. Naturally, the meeting devolved from there.
Sounds great, right? The civil rights people wanted to make my dad a big hero - standing up to oppression and all. Wonderful. But, afterwards he also got a steady stream of threats from the Mayor's people, as well as other whites. His father was furious with him (he hated blacks, too). They had just had me, and it all seemed overwhelming with a new baby. So he backed down, laid low.
They ended up moving to New Mexico in 1970, and have had a great career far away from the rottenness that was Chicago (and Illinois) of that era. But it's always bothered them - not "white guilt" so much as feeling like they knuckled under. This year, they've been working nonstop for Obama in NM, from the primaries until yesterday. My dad especially, he's really persuasive. Returning to Chicago, seeing this locomotive coming down the tracks, is just a little much for him. I think a lot of whites of his generation have these feelings, that even though they could have stood taller in the past, it's just so good to see it finally coming around.
We didn't end up getting passes to get into the rally (too late on the email response!), but we'll be there, man. Outside the chain link, but for sure in earshot.
"Both my parents were born in the Jim Crow South. For me, this election is for them, and for my great-niece, all of 7 months."
Why? Obama has no roots in the American South, and none of his ancestors suffered here under slavery or Jim Crow. Just because he has kinky hair and dark skin he's one of you?
Fred freds: "Obama has no roots in the American South, and none of his ancestors suffered here under slavery or Jim Crow. Just because he has kinky hair and dark skin he's one of you?"
"Rosa sat so MLK could walk
MLK walked so Obama could run
Obama ran so our children can fly"
Your kids can fly now, if they have the chops. Obama does: he's the son of economist and an anthropologist. Most blacks don't have those kinds of chops. That has nothing to do with discrimination, it's just the way the numbers workout.
Fred: just because Obama doesn't have roots in the American South doesn't mean that Jim Crow wouldn't have applied to him. I don't think the people enforcing the "whites only" drinking fountains would have cared much that his mom was white or his father was not the decendant of slaves.
Yeah, well, I've been trying not to think about this because I kind of can't take it. I'm pretty sure that if he wins I'll have a nervous breakdown, and if he loses, I'll have a nervous breakdown. I'm just a wuss.
Yeah, I've heard Obama make that pitch. The fact is that racism hasn't kept talented blacks from achieving anything for decades, and any lack of achievement since then is the result of blacks' own issues. There are plenty of whites who would love to vote for an attractive black candidate -- that's why Obama is leading in the polls now.
Fweeet! Time out - fools, just ignore Fred. He specializes in pissing people off. Seriously, just ignore the posts. Any response AT ALL just gives him lulz.
I've seen him around a lot of these boards, and punks like him are the reason most writers here don't accept comments anymore.
I know lots of people like you. You're so above it all, so analytical. For you, it's obvious that America is a meritocracy, where the cream rises to the top, no matter what.
That isn't so. Plenty of talented people (of all races and both genders) don't succeed in America, because of discrimination and poverty and bad parents and many other factors. Success in America is as much a product of talent as it is of upbringing and connections and luck in avoiding crushing poverty.
We white people are still entrenched in power in most sectors of this country. We hire and promote our relatives and friends. The old-boys-network is alive and well. Women are making some entres into these places, as are people of color, but don't pretend that it's strictly on merit that folks succeed in this country. That's a fantasy.
Obama's success in this environment, with the many challenges he's faced, is an heroic achievement. That he's managed this feat by conducting a campaign based on positives rather than negatives is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
"Obama's success in this environment, with the many challenges he's faced, is an heroic achievement."
Please. If Obama weren't half black, he would have had the political career of Dennis Kucinich. Being black has been a huge tailwind for him. There's no denying that.
I'm in the Air Force right now, stationed in New Mexico. I've been secretly going off and volunteering at the Obama office in town. It's southern New Mexico, so it's ranchers, transplanted Texans, and airmen, and that's it. Pretty conservative crowd.
I am from southwest Houston. Family is from Alabama and northeast Texas - closer to Shreveport than Dallas. My parents took me to a Baptist church until I was about 9 or so, and then they let me figure it out from there. I'm an agnostic today. The family we always borrowed watered-down ketchup and sugar from was the Naseers, three houses down the street. They were a large black Muslim family with 6 kids. During the summers we'd sometimes go to mosque with them. It was alright, everybody was nice folk at the mosque - and this was even back during the Gulf War. The oldest son, Moqadim, joined the Navy after high school. The middle girl is the first girl I ever kissed, the first girl I played stink-finger with.
As nice as all that sounds, my dad used to gripe non-stop between Juneteenth and the end of February every year, because PBS was always playing clips of MLK speaking. Looking back, I don't know if it's because he's just heard it so many times, but back then I remember it being very racist-sounding, and I'd always get into fights with him about it. He didn't like that we went to mosque with the Naseers, either. My mom was in the middle of her religion kick, where she read the Torah, Quran, several different versions of the Bible, and some Wiccan stuff, so she was pretty open to it.
I distinctly remember feeling out of place once I went from elementary to middle school, because all of a sudden there were all these white kids! The kids from my neighborhood, the ones I went to elementary school with - the black kids - went one way, and the white kids, well, they were from another neighborhood, so I wasn't going to talk to those assholes. So I started my trails down a fairly lonesome school career.
At some point in there, I dated a girl who was a first-generation African American. From Zimbabwe - I called her my Rhodesian queen, and it annoyed the fuck out of her. I don't think she got it. Or maybe she asked her dad about it, and he took offense at the "Rhodes" part. She's a lesbian now, in Hawaii, with a Navy girl.
At any rate, I hope I've asserted my white-guy-in-good-standing-with-the-black-community credibility.
This is a pretty big deal for me, too. I don't look at those videos of people getting sprayed and wonder if they're an aunt I never met, but I do wonder if the people firing the hoses are great-uncles we don't have pictures of.
When I get out of the military, I want to live in Austin. But I wish I could be in Houston on November 4th. I want to watch it with the Grants (they drove Metro buses) or the Naseers, or even with all the Katrina evacuees that have made my home their home, while I was away from home. Few things warm me as much as being in the middle of the jubilation of the people I grew up around. The only thing I've ever seen to rival the pure joy of black folks is when I see a fellow serviceman get back from the sandbox.
I don't know what to make of it, but I'm pretty sure some of the work I've done in this swing state is going to contribute to all the joy I'll miss out on in a state like Texas, in a town like Houston. I'll try to keep that in mind when I'm celebrating at the campaign office with the black lawyer from Dallas that drove here on her own dime, and the Hispanic activist from San Francisco that drove here on her own dime, and the field organizer from upstate New York, and the dozens of military retirees in their Vietnam jackets, and the girls from the community college, and the few guys I recognize from the base that I've agreed to not make eye contact with one another while in uniform, like some sort of Fight Club.
My girlfriend has never seen me cry. She's pretty pissed at all the time I've spent at the campaign office, half-heartedly accusing me of cheating on her. I think she'll see me cry on Tuesday.
socctty: I'm just down the road from you on the other side of the mountains.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the day, maybe 30 years from now, when one of my most prized possessions is the dark blue New Mexico field organizer hoodie they gave me for being such a dedicated volunteer.
My favorite moment in the campaign was when Guilianni could hide his contempt for community organizing. Those ****ers have no idea what is about to hit them.
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
It helps that he's likely to be such a good black president. If this dude were Black John Kerry or Black George Bush, I'd be a lot less fired up.
I'm an old white guy who has long worked and supported liberal causes and I can't believe it. It makes me so proud to be an American at this time in our history.
Here's a personal story from last Sunday. I was checking out at the grocery store and the young, black clerk saw my Obama t-shirt and said to me, "I like your shirt, do you think he's really going to do it."
I said, "absolutely."
Then both of us--one big young black man and big old white guy started crying--right in the middle of a market in Beverly Hills.
What an amazing feeling!
I'm counting down the days Ta'Nehisi. As the days dwindle down and no major stories occur (I'm counting the "illegal aunt" story as minor), my heart starts to beat faster and then anxiety about the true state of racial animosity in America sets in.
3 more days.
P.S. How exciting is Cheney's endorsement of McCain
Ty,
I've gotta add my two cents, if I may:
"Black John Kerry" would have been a good President, and certainly a great alternative to "W" in 2005 (Katrina?) and beyond...
"Black George W. Bush" would have been a disaster, no matter what his race!
I'm hoping Barack Obama will be a GREAT President... one for ages... but the proof will be in the results, not the starting point...
I feel like crying almost every day. And most of all - when I hear certain things in Obama's speeches - about others who have stood up for us so we have to stand up now, about being one America, none of us being real Americans.
When I heard Obama's NH speech, I was so moved because he was writing the story of progressive change back into the American story, into what it means to be a patriot. The best of America is the America that has tried to perfect itself and he reminds us of that and urges us to do more. The right has owned Americanism far too long - We need to take that back as we go forward.
I've already voted and I'm planning on doing get out the vote work on Sunday at least. I hope everyone out there pitches in!
I hope so. I sincerely hope so - equally, for the positive symbolism of Obama, and for fear of the ugly reality of McCain / Palin.
But. Last Sunday McCain said on teevee that he "could guarantee" that he'll be the winner on Monday.
OK. I'm hoping this is something received by my tinfoil hat antenna. But for a crowd that has made a career of rogue war, torture, debauchery of the Constitution, politicization at the most mundane and the most august levels of government, and which came into power in 2000 on a highly dubious basis - stealing (another) election wouldn't really be much.
I sure hope to be eating these words late Tuesday night. Let freedom ring.
I was thinking about this today. I was born in 1984 and remember being vaguely aware of Bush 41, but Bill Clinton was really the first president who I actually followed, and he was kind of what I thought of when you said "president" -- a generic white, smart, ostentatiously culturally southern Democratic centrist-technocrat. (Imagine the one-eighty my little ass did when this Dubya joker strutted onto the scene!)
Fast forward to...well, three days from now. The implication is simple but extraordinary: Assuming Obama wins and serves two terms, then for the generational cohort born between 1998 and 2008 or so, a black guy will be the first president that they are generally aware of. It will be what they think of when you say "president." It will be genuinely a little jarring to them when (if!) we elect Obama's non-white successor in 2016. (Patrick '16 anybody? Get on board!) A white dude as president? Imagine that!
Now, all this isn't to understate the impact of our traditional culture -- it will always be the case that the 43 guys in the history books before Barack are old white guys of some strain or another, and that won't disappear, and it shouldn't. It's part of our past, and many of those men have been good and worthy leaders.
But when we talk about the revolutionary aspect of electing a black president, we tend to focus -- not crazily, I think -- on the impact of this on boomers and oldies who never thought they'd see the day. But those people have seen old white guys come and go for decades -- for them, Obama is an achievement, a proud one, but not a fundamental paradigm shift. He's just an interesting and heartening twist in a history that's been getting their hopes up and dashing them for decades. The jaundice has set in already.
But for a new generation, there will be no preoccupation with the fraught legacy of the civil rights movement, whether Bill was really the "first black president," what to do with al and Jesse, etc., etc. -- there will just be a vague but definite sense that a black dude in the white house is more or less standard operating procedure. Think about that. This will be the first generation to grow up hearing their white parents say stupid shit about black folks, then look over to the TV and see a black guy running a country full of all different colors of folks, and by all indications, doing it pretty well. That's a massive, massive shift and it's why I DO think an Obama presidency will transform race in this country, but that the impact also may not be clear until about 5-10 years after his term ends, when all these kids start growing up and becoming the parents of the next set of kids. And the long list of old white men in their history books will have one very visible, immutable exception.
God, what a beautiful country.
A friend sent me the link to this You Tube video - Mavis Staples/Eyes on the Prize.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZWdDI_fkns
My husband and I sat and watched it and sobbed. What an amazing election this has been.
I can't wait for Tuesday night.
Note from another inauguration:
"Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning."
Watching that Mavis Staples You Tube video above, I wonder if the older gentlemen, who gets harrassed, and just keeps walking and puts his hat back on with such quiet dignity, is still alive to vote?
Tuesday can't come soon enough for me.
I teared up at something in the globe and mail today. It showed a pic of like 5 little black kids in 1966 sitting in front of a boarded up house in Alabama I think. Someone had written on the boards "freedom is near". The photo caption said Obama would have been a young kid at the time,like five or six. On the bottom half of the paper it showed Obama today with his supporters and refereced the Martin Luther King speech. Tears!
There is an excerpt from Clinton's '97 inaugural speech where he talks about race and religion and the 21st century, and how if America can get over its issues there is potential for great things. Worth reading I'd say. I hope my Barry O shirts arrive by Tuesday...I will be cheering in Canada. Fingers crossed.
I'm getting married next weekend, and I'm so glad to be starting a new chapter of my life in a country and time where Obama is possible.
Now he just has to win.
I've got that thirty-something Jewish friend of mine. Pessimist like crazy. In 2004 I thought it was going to be a Kerry landslide (I based my prognostication in the shitty place the country was). He was thinking that the election was going to be stolen anyway, that the country had no route to salvation.
This year I have been very optimistic and he, not so much. Well, he called me yesterday to tell me he was finally believing we were going to win. Then he starting crying.
Early voting in Georgia monday I teared up in line watching much older african americans in line knowing that in their lifetime they were not allowed to vote, and now they have the opportunity to vote for president of african ancestry. It shows that We have come a long way in the span of a lifetime.
Every time I get that giddy feeling (swiftly followed by panicked paranoia) I log on and make ten Obama phonebank calls. It's like some sort of anti-jinx ritual.
It's as if keeping everything in my peripheral vision can somehow keep it going until it's real. But I'm still taking Tuesday off and hitting the streets with the local canvassing team to MAKE it real.
The moment that brought it home for me was watching one black father vote with his two-year old daughter on his hip and another black father vote while trying to corral his very excited 8-9 y-o daughter.
I'm excited that we are not only electing a black man, but a black family.
I'm with you TNC, this has made me so excited, many times. But, let's all remember to be ever-vigilant, cause these mo-fos have stolen the last two elections, so don't think they won't try it again, those electronic voting machines are flipping all over the place...peep what Oprah went thru...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/31/oprah-opts-for-early-voti_n_139869.html
I was just thinking this morning - how would you possibly write an inaugural address for the first black president of the U.S.? How can you articulate what that means in the history of power in this country? Back when I was an undergraduate in 2000 or 2001 I took a class called the American Presidency and I remember thinking, "I wonder if we will have a black president in my lifetime?" And here we are 7 or 8 years later and we're this close.
Building off of what Dan said above, imagine if Obama is president for 8 years and then a woman or another non-white guy is elected for the next 4-8 years! People who are becoming politically aware today will have an entirely different idea of what a "president" is!
Dig this.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/27/1027jones.html
ty: "It helps that he's likely to be such a good black president. If this dude were Black John Kerry or Black George Bush, I'd be a lot less fired up."
the day we'll know that racism in this country is finally dead is the day we elect a shitty black president. do you know hard it is for a black politician to break out nationally? Barack Obama is literally the only one. he had to be twice as good as everyone else at every step of his career and even then he was really, really lucky.
so yes in a perverse sense i look forward to the time of Black George Bush.
Started thinking that about a week ago and realized that for all I'd said to class after class that it was too reasonable not to happen, and sooner rather than later, that I hadn't actually believed it. Can't wait to see what it feels like.
raft writes: "i look forward to the time of Black George Bush."
Okay, but make it the father, not the son. If I see another Dumbya in the White House my eyes will shoot out of my skull and innocent zoo pandas or schoolteachers or Wal-Mart shoppers might get hurt. And it will be your fault.
Oh that Chuck Todd. Gets me every time.
Yeah, Chuck Todd. He's understated, but you can tell he is looooving it.
I know, I know, I know! Every so often it hits me and I can hardly believe it. Is it really true?
Well, it's not true yet. Work to do. I can't let myself believe it yet. Too much can go wrong and I wouldn't put it past those thieves in power to try to steal this one too.
Keeping the faith.
It will be truly amazing if he wins. I wish I could keep my ballot.
It will also be amazing how he won. David Broder said the night Obama gave his speech at DNC 2004, 'Its like watching Tiger Woods play his first [major] tournament.' Tiger won The Masters by a record 12 stroke margin. Obama will have shattered a few records with a win.
Work to do, yes.
But the best part is that, in the future, if you tell a child that a black candidate might be elected their response will be "so what?".
And yes, I never thought it would happen in my lifetime, and yes I feel blessed to see this day.
Ok, let's all take a look around when it happens, soak it in for a minute, then get back to work, because there's a shitload to get done.
Like Haile Selassie said and Bob Marley put to music...here or here(short version that I like):
"Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes...
Until basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race...
That until that day, the dream of lasting peace...will remain but a fleeting illusion...
And until that day...we Africans will fight...and we know we shall win...as we are confident in victory of good over evil."
Well TNC, my people, reality is around the corner.
Black president.
T.
Saw this elsewhere:
Rosa sat so MLK could walk
MLK walked so Obama could run
Obama ran so our children can fly
I thought it poignant.
my 13 year-old son gets it. every time we look at each other, we either high-five or do a terrorist fist jab, and then I start to cry, and he says "moommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm". My 10 and 11 year-olds both know that this is a "big deal", and know enough history to know why, but they really just want Obama to win, and don't want to talk about it beyond that. we don't have tv, so they miss a lot of the hype. On election night, I plan on making them all huddle around my little laptop to watch critical parts of the coverage..........
I had that moment in September of last year after I decided to support Obama. Is that weird? Not to brag, but at the same time, I had this feeling that I knew he would be the next president. He just seemed an order of magnitude better and more impressive than almost anyone else running - the only other one to come close to impressing me, although the Dem side was very impressive this time, was Ron Paul. I also really identified with his growing up between two cultures, not knowing exactly who he was, with his obvious nerdiness, with his measured style of thinking and inclusive problem-solving approach.
Anyway, after I made this decision, and realized that I had quickly internalized a certainty that he would be the next president, I was like, "holy shit -- black president! Awesome!"
it's been a long time coming, but change is gonna come.
Right NOW!
I'm 40 y.o. and grew up hearing AND BELIEVING that an African-American could not and would not be elected President. I have a 4 y.o son who looks just like a young Barack Obama. I voted for Obama because I agree with his policies but, just as important, I want my son to grow up believing that he can be President.
I will be crying on Tuesday night because of how far African-Americans have come. But I will also be crying when thinking about how far my son can go.
TNC I think you posted a link to this video way back during convention time, but I was always struck by the real emotion displayed by juan williams of fox news after michelle's speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2MKvkx82uM
If Obama wins, seeing the reaction of black america will be my personal highlight.
That being said, I'm also fearful of the reaction if he loses. I see an entire generation of not only blacks, but young progressives in general just giving up on politics.
I feel where you're coming from tho, I would have bet my life we'd never see this day.
raft: the day we'll know that racism in this country is finally dead is the day we elect a shitty black president.
since i know tnc is a sports fan, let me analogize. in the nba, there have now been so many black coaches that it is of no consequence at all, racially, when one gets hired - or fired. it is just a fact: coaches get hired, coaches get fired. isaiah just did a crappy job with the knicks. if he were white, it would have been just as crappy a job. doc rivers is a champioship coach. period. that's the way it should b>e, and maybe that's the way it will be, in politics and the corporate world, led by an obama presidency.
I keep considering what an Obama presidency will do for us, not just within the US but in healing divisions with the rest of the world.
Aside from everything else, maybe we can put the damned Boomer incessant Culture/Vietnam/whatever war to rest and realize that none of that is important in light of dealing with the challenges that face us?
For me, the possibility of it all overwhelmed me the night of January 3, 2008, in Iowa, when Barack began with
They said this day would never come.
They said our sights were set too high.
They said our country was too divided,
too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose.
But on this January night,
at this defining moment in history,
you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do.
Listen again at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNZaq-YKCnE&feature=related
I'm looking forward to Election Day more than I can ever remember looking forward to Christmas morning as a child.
Fingers crossed for a landslide too big to steal....
T-NC,
What will be the reaction of the black man on the street if Obama goes on to win Tuesday? What should we expect that night? Will it be the same sort of 'celebration' that occurs after a city's basketball team wins the big championship?
This will be the biggest day in African American history since O.J. was acquitted, what should we expect?
Zoe,
"Fingers crossed for a landslide too big to steal...."
You have nothing to fear. Your side controls the media, has 6 times the money, and has been using Acorn to inflate the voter rolls in a bunch of states. Not that Obama wouldn't be the favorite to win anyway, given the stock market crash, but David Axelrod & Co. have been extra careful.
Confession: I was surfing a couple of lefty food-fight sites, and the thought came to me: "this will be the biggest pigfucker smackdown in my lifetime". I.e., all the rednecks get to suck on it hard just this once.
Then I came here and read some of the comments, so proud and jubilant but no vindictiveness, and I became ashamed of associating Obama's triumph (and America's, even the bitters who hate Obama, their country as much as mine is greater for Obama winning) with such a petty thought. So take a bow, y'all get it. And (not that anyone here needs to be told, but to our side in general) if you meet someone from the other side after it's over, don't taunt them, but share your joy if you can.
Fred freds: "What will be the reaction of the black man on the street if Obama goes on to win Tuesday? What should we expect that night? Will it be the same sort of 'celebration' that occurs after a city's basketball team wins the big championship?"
Hey, Fred, how many times a day do you change your underpants?
You know, reading this, I had this smartass comment ready, but then, I couldn't write it. My hands started shaking as I even thought about typing it. I've been so wound up about this election. I'm going to take this and write a serious post about it.
thanks, Coates.
Both my parents were born in the Jim Crow South. For me, this election is for them, and for my great-niece, all of 7 months. The world of her great-grandparents is something she will only know in history books, yet it is a history to be honored and respected, for they suffered and fought so that she could only know of the world through history books.
On November 3rd, 2004, heartbroken along with many of my other left-coast liberal friends and colleagues, I managed a wry smile and half-jokingly raised my fist to my co-workers and said "Obama '08!"
I swear, I tell the truth.
But I never expected him to run.
He ran.
And I never expected him to get the nomination.
He did.
And then I worried and fretted that America would never be able to elect a black man, that circumstances and small-minded fear would block his chances.
And now--to our collective amazement--we stand together on the cusp of history.
We are more than ready to do the real work; rich, poor, gay, straight, black, white, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Asian, Latino, Native Americans and all of us together--this can be a great nation if we want it to be.
I've said many times that I never expected Barack to walk on water; he won't take his oath over the Bible and wave a tribal Kenyan staff and fix our problems as if by magic. But we will at least have something we've been missing in this delusional, delayed young 21st century:
A chance.
I can't wait. And I try to be not afraid...to hope.
I hear you. My mom and dad just came to visit me here in Chicago for the week, and we were walking around outside the chain link fence they've set up around tuesday's rally site in Grant Park. We were standing there and my dad just started bawling. Me too, of course. We're white, and find it overwhelming.
They grew up in Chicago in the '40s and '50s, and were college students in Illinois in the '60's when the civil rights movement thundered into the state. They saw the white flight hollow out neighborhoods - families were politically split apart. My maternal grandfather worked at International Harvester with blacks, and had no problem with them, but my grandmother was violently racist. Both my mom and dad worked on behalf of the civil rights movement, but it just got way too intense, too difficult, too much hate.
A story they still don't like to tell still haunts my dad. My parents were grad students at U of I when there was a big flap about fair housing - the mayor of Champaign and his cronies were dead set against letting blacks move in. An open meeting about housing grievances was held with some sort of visiting federal authority figure (I still don't know who). It was a pretty tense scene, with students there to voice opposition to the discriminatory policies in place. Then the mayor stood in the meeting, right next to my dad, and said "You don't have to listen to these people". My dad, outraged, stood up and yelled "You can't do that!". At which point, the mayor punched him. Really decked him. Not a small feat, since my dad had been an all-state football player. Naturally, the meeting devolved from there.
Sounds great, right? The civil rights people wanted to make my dad a big hero - standing up to oppression and all. Wonderful. But, afterwards he also got a steady stream of threats from the Mayor's people, as well as other whites. His father was furious with him (he hated blacks, too). They had just had me, and it all seemed overwhelming with a new baby. So he backed down, laid low.
They ended up moving to New Mexico in 1970, and have had a great career far away from the rottenness that was Chicago (and Illinois) of that era. But it's always bothered them - not "white guilt" so much as feeling like they knuckled under. This year, they've been working nonstop for Obama in NM, from the primaries until yesterday. My dad especially, he's really persuasive. Returning to Chicago, seeing this locomotive coming down the tracks, is just a little much for him. I think a lot of whites of his generation have these feelings, that even though they could have stood taller in the past, it's just so good to see it finally coming around.
We didn't end up getting passes to get into the rally (too late on the email response!), but we'll be there, man. Outside the chain link, but for sure in earshot.
"Both my parents were born in the Jim Crow South. For me, this election is for them, and for my great-niece, all of 7 months."
Why? Obama has no roots in the American South, and none of his ancestors suffered here under slavery or Jim Crow. Just because he has kinky hair and dark skin he's one of you?
Fred freds: "Obama has no roots in the American South, and none of his ancestors suffered here under slavery or Jim Crow. Just because he has kinky hair and dark skin he's one of you?"
Fred laughed when Sounder died.
You're a pretty nasty piece of work, aren't you, Fred?
Fred laughed when Bambi's mother died...
Fred has all the human decency of a corn husk.
"Rosa sat so MLK could walk
MLK walked so Obama could run
Obama ran so our children can fly"
Your kids can fly now, if they have the chops. Obama does: he's the son of economist and an anthropologist. Most blacks don't have those kinds of chops. That has nothing to do with discrimination, it's just the way the numbers workout.
Fred: just because Obama doesn't have roots in the American South doesn't mean that Jim Crow wouldn't have applied to him. I don't think the people enforcing the "whites only" drinking fountains would have cared much that his mom was white or his father was not the decendant of slaves.
Yeah, well, I've been trying not to think about this because I kind of can't take it. I'm pretty sure that if he wins I'll have a nervous breakdown, and if he loses, I'll have a nervous breakdown. I'm just a wuss.
KCN,
Yeah, I've heard Obama make that pitch. The fact is that racism hasn't kept talented blacks from achieving anything for decades, and any lack of achievement since then is the result of blacks' own issues. There are plenty of whites who would love to vote for an attractive black candidate -- that's why Obama is leading in the polls now.
Fweeet! Time out - fools, just ignore Fred. He specializes in pissing people off. Seriously, just ignore the posts. Any response AT ALL just gives him lulz.
I've seen him around a lot of these boards, and punks like him are the reason most writers here don't accept comments anymore.
Oh, Fred.
I know lots of people like you. You're so above it all, so analytical. For you, it's obvious that America is a meritocracy, where the cream rises to the top, no matter what.
That isn't so. Plenty of talented people (of all races and both genders) don't succeed in America, because of discrimination and poverty and bad parents and many other factors. Success in America is as much a product of talent as it is of upbringing and connections and luck in avoiding crushing poverty.
We white people are still entrenched in power in most sectors of this country. We hire and promote our relatives and friends. The old-boys-network is alive and well. Women are making some entres into these places, as are people of color, but don't pretend that it's strictly on merit that folks succeed in this country. That's a fantasy.
Obama's success in this environment, with the many challenges he's faced, is an heroic achievement. That he's managed this feat by conducting a campaign based on positives rather than negatives is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
"Obama's success in this environment, with the many challenges he's faced, is an heroic achievement."
Please. If Obama weren't half black, he would have had the political career of Dennis Kucinich. Being black has been a huge tailwind for him. There's no denying that.
I'm in the Air Force right now, stationed in New Mexico. I've been secretly going off and volunteering at the Obama office in town. It's southern New Mexico, so it's ranchers, transplanted Texans, and airmen, and that's it. Pretty conservative crowd.
I am from southwest Houston. Family is from Alabama and northeast Texas - closer to Shreveport than Dallas. My parents took me to a Baptist church until I was about 9 or so, and then they let me figure it out from there. I'm an agnostic today. The family we always borrowed watered-down ketchup and sugar from was the Naseers, three houses down the street. They were a large black Muslim family with 6 kids. During the summers we'd sometimes go to mosque with them. It was alright, everybody was nice folk at the mosque - and this was even back during the Gulf War. The oldest son, Moqadim, joined the Navy after high school. The middle girl is the first girl I ever kissed, the first girl I played stink-finger with.
As nice as all that sounds, my dad used to gripe non-stop between Juneteenth and the end of February every year, because PBS was always playing clips of MLK speaking. Looking back, I don't know if it's because he's just heard it so many times, but back then I remember it being very racist-sounding, and I'd always get into fights with him about it. He didn't like that we went to mosque with the Naseers, either. My mom was in the middle of her religion kick, where she read the Torah, Quran, several different versions of the Bible, and some Wiccan stuff, so she was pretty open to it.
I distinctly remember feeling out of place once I went from elementary to middle school, because all of a sudden there were all these white kids! The kids from my neighborhood, the ones I went to elementary school with - the black kids - went one way, and the white kids, well, they were from another neighborhood, so I wasn't going to talk to those assholes. So I started my trails down a fairly lonesome school career.
At some point in there, I dated a girl who was a first-generation African American. From Zimbabwe - I called her my Rhodesian queen, and it annoyed the fuck out of her. I don't think she got it. Or maybe she asked her dad about it, and he took offense at the "Rhodes" part. She's a lesbian now, in Hawaii, with a Navy girl.
At any rate, I hope I've asserted my white-guy-in-good-standing-with-the-black-community credibility.
This is a pretty big deal for me, too. I don't look at those videos of people getting sprayed and wonder if they're an aunt I never met, but I do wonder if the people firing the hoses are great-uncles we don't have pictures of.
When I get out of the military, I want to live in Austin. But I wish I could be in Houston on November 4th. I want to watch it with the Grants (they drove Metro buses) or the Naseers, or even with all the Katrina evacuees that have made my home their home, while I was away from home. Few things warm me as much as being in the middle of the jubilation of the people I grew up around. The only thing I've ever seen to rival the pure joy of black folks is when I see a fellow serviceman get back from the sandbox.
I don't know what to make of it, but I'm pretty sure some of the work I've done in this swing state is going to contribute to all the joy I'll miss out on in a state like Texas, in a town like Houston. I'll try to keep that in mind when I'm celebrating at the campaign office with the black lawyer from Dallas that drove here on her own dime, and the Hispanic activist from San Francisco that drove here on her own dime, and the field organizer from upstate New York, and the dozens of military retirees in their Vietnam jackets, and the girls from the community college, and the few guys I recognize from the base that I've agreed to not make eye contact with one another while in uniform, like some sort of Fight Club.
My girlfriend has never seen me cry. She's pretty pissed at all the time I've spent at the campaign office, half-heartedly accusing me of cheating on her. I think she'll see me cry on Tuesday.
Fred,
Your bitterness has never tasted so, so sweet.
Tomorrow it will be like honey, as you desperately will try to pour bile on a moment of sheer joy.
For myself, and probably some others like Moe, it will be just an added bonus, so knock yourself out.
But please, make it your own hatred; stop cribbing from Mr Sailer.
socctty: I'm just down the road from you on the other side of the mountains.
Personally, I'm looking forward to the day, maybe 30 years from now, when one of my most prized possessions is the dark blue New Mexico field organizer hoodie they gave me for being such a dedicated volunteer.
My favorite moment in the campaign was when Guilianni could hide his contempt for community organizing. Those ****ers have no idea what is about to hit them.