So it will be President Barack Obama.Although the landslide victory was predicted and expected, it still seems fantastic. My country elected a black man as president. I knew that would happen one day, but the suddenness of Obama's acceptance as a candidate and now as a president-elect is stunning to me. It gives me a good feeling that the fact of his race was rendered to interesting rather than impeding.
So now what? Can he deliver on the Hope he so eloquently promised during his campaign? He should have no obstacles for a considerable length of time. His party also owns the House and Senate, so the Obama agenda should begin being ushered in quickly, and we will see if it bears fruit.
Whether a person voted for Obama or not is now inconsequential. He will be the president. A good American must hope that he will actually be a good leader, and that the policies he drives and the bills he signs into law will be more good than bad and make our country stronger rather than weaker. The level of bile and hatred directed at George W. Bush should not remain the status quo, only now from the other side. People said Bush divided our country, but that isn't true. A president is only one man. We divided ourselves, and it isn't healthy.
So here we go. Let's see what happens.
2 comments:
Maybe you can give a take on the double standards of society, not just about "blacks"... but from Asiatic spectrums to us whitey's...
I find it a deplorable double standard that we have the social perception and fallacies that we do such as slapping the tag of FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT. When in fact he is the FIRST BIRACIAL PRESIDENT. Tiger Woods has this one right, he doesn't call himself a black man, but rather more accurately a person of color... at least he doesn't disrespect his identity... like obama "let stand" in favor of the more socially fashionable one to get votes ..
I do have to wonder though again in the lines of pointing out double standards while the thought of people voting against obama was given air time and debate, voting for him was dismissed and treated as something to be proud of and how could one possibly vote for Obama because indeed they relate to his skin color and social labels...if only using the color of his skin as criteria... So, while we say race doesn't matter, we pat him on the back with the social fallacy of him being a BLACK man, what a disgrace to all of his genetic diversity. I don't get us humans and how we can so bviously rally behind a lie. Since when did hope for change, mean solution ?
it sure did mobilize people many people, that may not have been "inspired" otherwise as well ...but skin color was an active component within his popularity ...
ONE WORD - Demographics
Much of the same, with just a different genetic sequence is my take as a non-voter.
Arrivederci,
DESODAWG
Joseph-Ryan E. L.
Why would I give a take from Asiatic spectrums? Do you think I'm Asian? This picture has confused some people. I have also been asked if I had any Indian--as in India--heritage. I do, in fact, have Indian heritage, but the Cherokee sort instead. I'm mostly 95 percent North Alabama, Irish/Scottish hilljack.
So I'll give you that perspective. Being from the South, we get labeled racist automatically much of the time, which is irritating, but goes back to history. For a long time here, and perhaps in other parts of the country too, people applied what was called the "one drop" rule. That meant that if you had even one drop of "black" blood in you, you were black. Not pure. Have several generations of people of color growing up with that rule being applied to them by racists, and I can understand how a person of mixed race would just simply say, "I'm black." They weren't given a choice about the distinction for a long time. In the New Orleans area they used other words. For example, a "quadroon" was a person who had one quarter black parentage and an "octoroon" was a person with one eight heritage. Point is, for a very long time you simply were not allowed to call yourself "white" if you weren't 100 percent white.
Times change. Obama even called himself a "mutt" earlier this week, which made me laugh. But I do think you are right about some of this. There were a whole lot of white people who voted for Obama without regard to his bi-racial heritage, and yes, there were a whole lot of black people who voted for him specifically because of it. What can I do about it? One day maybe everyone will vote for the candidate they think is best without giving a second thought to his or her color or ancestry. That will be awesome. But right now, I'm just glad people care enough to vote. Our electorate is neither informed, for the most part, nor culturally sophisticated.
But take heart. I don't think Obama talks about his race nearly as much as the white media does. It will die down in time. And then we'll see whether or not he's a good president.
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