Everyone is excited about the inauguration and I’m excited too. Every time we elect a new President I have high hopes for the future. I have the audacity to hope for real positive change. Even when the odds are against such dreams, I still hope.
And since Obama has hinged his entire campaign on “hope”, I’m really looking for some good things to happen. And I think some of it already has. Even before he has taken office people are excited and energetic, more so than with any president in my recollection. Even Clinton didn’t connect with people on such a “common man” level.
One of the things I ‘m hoping changes is this racial awareness that has been brought to light and for some reason, embraced! Why is it alright for us to sing the praises of Barack Obama as a black man and not just as a man? Why is the local news (and the local criminal congresswoman) interviewing black people and asking how they feel to have a black President? To treat Obama as a hero because he’s black is the same as treating him as a second-class citizen because he’s black. He’s my president too, but because I’m white, my opinion doesn’t matter.
So as a nation, we have to decide RIGHT NOW! Is he the 44th President of the United States or is he the 1st black President of the United States? Is he a man or is he black? And no, he can’t be both. Either he’s a leader for all the people or he’s a black icon who means nothing more than the novelty of breaking the race barrier. Sure, I’m excited to see that barrier broken, but I’m looking forward to what he will do for all of us, not just to our black brothers and sisters. Rejoice in your own way but the only excitement I’ve seen is caused by the color of his skin.
This reverse racism is actually embraced by the networks and the general media. What would happen if people started talking about being proud to be white? That’s right, that feeling you just got in your chest as you read those words tells you it’s wrong to be proud of your racial background. It’s tribalism. I’m white, I’m black, I’m Mexican, I’m Jewish, I’m Dutch-Irish, I’m full of shit! How about being human? How about being proud to be a person, how about helping out someone next to you, regardless of their ancestry? We’re all in this together, drawing lines of distinction between ourselves because of the circumstances of our birth is really just silly in this day and age.
So I have a headline I’d like to see in the next few years:
Massive hurricane causes flooding and wipes out Martha’s Vineyard. Amid the clean-up, Caroline Kennedy goes on MTV and announces, “Barack Obama doesn’t care about white people.”
Ohhhh, bad Chris, how dare you bring up the racial issue? Well, everyone else is dancing on the issue and jumping up and down on it. They’re just not calling it a racial issue, they’re just calling it a “pride” issue. I still say you’re cheapening the victory by focusing on his race.
I’m sure I’m leaving out some good points and even being contradictory in spots but I’ve got to get on a plane right now so I’m not focused on this like I want to be. It’s just frustrating to sit here and listen to the news reports on the screens talking all about black this and black that and not point out how they are building him up as a black icon and devaluing him as a man.
January 20th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
It’s time for white to do what’s right.
It’s time for white to do what’s right?!
Man, I really don’t have to say much more than that. More racial division and prayers. I can feel that suspension of disbelief and the thin illusion of hope turning back into molten cynicism. I wanted to hold on to it a bit longer but really, that’s a crappy way to start. I thought this guy wanted to bring people together? It’s no longer “we the people”, it has become “the blacks and the whites, the believers and the non…”
And you can’t tell me that the pastor’s speech wasn’t pre-approved, there’s no way someone is getting up in front of the nation on a day like today and say anything he wants to say without someone in the administration looking it over. Especially after the trouble he had with Jeremiah Wright. Otherwise he could have stood up and started spouting baseball stats or read the Communist Manifesto? No way. Those words came from the mouth of the pastor but they were approved by the new President.
We are a nation divided by race and religion. We may try to get along but every time we allow that division to be reinforced, it pushes us further apart. Sad really…
January 20th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Reverse racism? When I hear a thing like that it suggests that only whites can be racist, like it’s some sort of innocent self defense from the oppressed black people. It’s simply racism. The “common man” thing is a rerun of Carter, He even hopped out of the limo and walked some of the parade route to the white house just like Carter did.
January 20th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I hate to split hairs, but that isn’t what he said: he actually said “White Embrace what is right” which is somewhat different.
“Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around … when yellow will be mellow … when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right.”
All in all as presidential benedictions go, it wasn’t too bad. They are always full of pompous crap.
Obamas speech made a better impression on me, down to earth and realistic: “Starting today,” the new president said, “we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin the work of remaking America.”
and
“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”
When a politician chooses not to blow smoke up my dress, I take note, it’s a pretty unusual thing.