Race in America After Nov 4 2008

I hope so. IMO a HUGE problem in the black community is - who are the black faces you see? Bill Cosby and Michael Jordan (or whoever, yeah, I'm fuckin' old) - entertainers and sports stars. Now the biggest face in the world is a black man. The excuses for being a no-account hood rat just dried right the fuck up.
Probably. The sociological import of whites (not to pick on anyone, but especially lower-class whites) looking down on blacks is that no matter how bad a white family had it, at least they weren't nigras. And when all of the sudden the people you were always better than by, if nothing else, virtue of skin color, have one of their elected president.....well, that's not a good thing. At all.

So yeah, things are gonna get a bit tougher in the rural South and West Virginia, but I think the rest of the country is over it.

No. Anyone who thinks otherwise is being overly idealistic.

Racism WILL increase in certain quarters.

Racists will come out of the woodwork now, believe this Georgia boy, but the good thing is that we'll be able to identify them and disenfranchise them more than ever before. Just look at that thread Devin linked to.

If I'm lucky enough to have children, the idea of a "black president" to them, in and of itself, won't be worth much more than "so?"

That's worth something.

A huge step forward tonight. A big blow against Racism as an institution and psychological deterrence. The glass ceiling was shattered.

Still, the look on the faces of some in the McCain crowd--and their inexplicible rudeness-- show the struggle's a long way from over.

Yeah it's already happening. I've already seen some really fucking angry bulletins on Myspace and such saying how "the world's fucked and yadda yadda". Some of these are just pissed 'cause the other side won, but others are very thinly-veiled racist comments, and it's pissing me off.

I've already deleted a few people. More to come tomorrow, I'm sure.

Racism will continue, but every single mind that is changed is a victory. And minds will change now, and even more will change if the Obama era is a success.

I told this story in the CHUD chat last night, but race was a huge issue with me in the election. One niece is half black, the other is half hispanic. There are plenty of places in the world that neither are acceptable, and plenty of places within Texas that it isn't acceptable.

I talked to my sister last night, who didn't support either candidate, and I told her to think of this. When Mia (half black niece) comes home from school and says she wants to be president one day, like every child does, you'll be able to honestly say 'Yes baby, you can if you work hard and really want it" and not feel like you're lying to her.

It choked my sister up. I think a lot of people have yet to recognize the enormous amount of change that can come just by Obama being elected, regardless of how he performs.

You know who I feel sorry for-Juan Williams of Fox News. The man has written some great books on the Civil Rights Movement (believe he was a contributor on Eyes On The Prize), and yet he was forced to spend yesterday's historical evening next to Bill Kristel & Fred Barnes. At one point he gave an eloquent monologue about the significance of Obama's win to the African-American community and was greeted with awkward silence and a few polite comments...then it was back to discussing the "important" stuff, like where the Republican Party goes from here.

Its telling that you say "half black/hispanic". It shows that "white" is pretty much assumed for the other "half" and that society sees biracial people as just sub-components of the major census racial categories.

The election's only the beginning, though. One thing that Obama's been consistently doing right is letting others focus on his win in terms of race; he's emphasizing the work that lies ahead and the unity required for it. It shows that he's opposed to the tokenism that might come to be associated with his election. There's a pragmatic reason for this - he's the first black president, but, as such, he will have a huge burden in proving himself a great president to a lot of backwards Americans. If he fails? We're a dumb country when it comes to race - his failure could easily be unfairly associated with his race, and it might be a while before we see another black face in oval office.

But I think there's a sort of less pragmatic, harder-to-articulate reason why he's downplaying it, as well. This idea of tokenism occurred to me after an acquaintance made the comment that Obama's election is just one step to the U.S. being truly egalitarian (or something to that effect), and now we just need to elect a woman. The problem with this thinking is that, while this election is a landmark one and rightfully inspiring, what makes it inspiring isn't that Obama's a black guy, but that he has the potential to be one of the greats. It got me thinking that, if we think in terms of tokenism, there's really no end in sight in terms of who might be represented - it'll be at least another 50 years before we see a homosexual or atheist president. And I hope we will someday. But no matter the specific group, it should never be enough to be just another check on a list.

I guess what I'm saying is that, while it's great to find the election inspiring through a racial lens, it's even better to find the man inspiring through a racial lens (or through any lens, really), and I hope we can say the same in four years. America didn't simply will the possibility of an Obama presidency into being by virtue of patience and slow, evolving attitudes toward race. Obama earned this by being the best candidate. And I hope that's how we see those other checks on the list manifest.

As long as there is a class system, and as long as there is not an even distribution of race, then minorities will always be viewed as other, and people of lower economic means will be blamed for the social position.

Looking at all the status updates on my Facebook page, these next four years are going to act as a magnifying glass to reveal who the racists are. It's been real nasty shit too; horrible, unfunny jokes about it not being hot dogs and apple pie anymore but fried chicken and watermelons, affirmative action being the reason why Obama won, and poor uses of the Onion's play on the word "change".

Singer's right. Expose them whenever you can. Shit, there's people I haven't talked to in years that I unloaded on because of how much their racism is exposed by their bitterness.

I agree with you, but there's the flip side of the argument. A black man had to be exceptionally qualified to even be considered a viable candidate while any Joe Six Pack and Hockey Mom will do. I think racial stereotypes played a huge role in Obama's win, just in more subtle ways.

I don't want to take away from Barack's win at all, though. He deserves all the accolades he can get for running a campaign that inspired millions to care about issues that affect ALL Americans, not just a few. But I do think people will see his win as a sign that race doesn't matter in America anymore, and that's far from the truth.

Shit, they're already saying it. I don't know how many times I've read statements like "The argument that the white man is keeping the black man down is OVER" and then not even seconds later racist bullshit like Scott mentioned.

We still got a long way to go, people.

Very true. But I'd argue that the inherent unfairness stems from an even greater problem - it's not so much our high expectations of a viable black candidate, but our low expectations of a viable white candidate. He's extraordinary in a way that we should expect all of our potential leaders to be extraordinary. It's just that he had to be that extraordinary to be considered viable (as would a female candidate*), while many white, male career politicians can rest on their laurels a bit.

* I'm not even sure what sort of supernatural qualities would be required of a viable gay or atheist candidate.

Great post, Dave.

Sums up the whole situation better than anything else I've read.

This country does have a history of, through chance or divine providence, having the right person at the right time to break down the doors. Goes without saying, the first black prez-it is a precarious position for any one to be put in. But listening to his speech in Grant Park last night, as he said everything that needed to be said, and said it well, i have to believe it cut through some of the nastiness out there.
And if as you said, he proves to be great, or at least a better man than the last, that's what he'll be recognized and remembered for. Perhaps then the mountain top will be reached, and the celebration can truly begin.

Interesting. I never thought of WV as a virulently anti-black state (it did go Union, after all, and that's where John Brown did his thing). What leads you to believe that things are going to get tougher there?

Because there's a lot of racists there.

One heartening thing we can take away from this, though, is that the minimum expectations for a candidate are not necessarily enough for a win. We let Palin exist as a rabble rouser, a bottom half of a ticket, but we pretty resoundingly rejected her when it came time to say "Do you actually want this person in the actual White House?"

The flipside of that is, of course, that it took Obama a lot of work to be accepted, but once he was, once he got over that hump, he took the election itself in a landslide.

Almost immediately after posting in this thread I was listening to a conversation some inbreds were having about "Obama and his jungle buddies" and "What's next? A gay for president?" ("That'd be a cold day in hell!") followed by "But it's really not about race" across from some black people in a cafe. But neither party was aware of the other; I was the liberal white observer between them. "Black president? Who cares!" It's been rarer and rarer that I bump into those kind of folk...so much boiling anger, but I was worried I heard them wrong. It's getting to the point where I either have to seek them out or visit a Tim Hortons (which is where every Canadian goes).

I am still hearing people say that this election was some sort of mistake. "America is just not ready for a black president" is a gem I've heard several times.

It was a landslide last night. He took states that have voted Republican for decades. America is ready. A lot of America is ready.

2008 will certainly go down as a historic year in the history of earth. Something I, and many others, NEVER thought we would see is actually going to happen...

Chinese Democracy is coming out!!!

I didn't vote for Obama, and I've always hated McCain. While I wanted Obama to lose, I can't deny I took a little joy in watching McCain go down in flames. I voted on ideological grounds, as I'm sure most others here did, and not skin color; though there are undoubtedly some of those who did so (on both sides.)

I don't know how much this will effect any changes in race relations, at least in the near future, but I think it helps a great deal. The highest office in the land will be occupied by a black man. That's something I've heard MANY black friends, associates and co-workers over the years say would never happen in this country when talking politics with them; and I've heard many white associates and relatives joke about, and fear, would happen. Apparently there was some "machine" out there controlled by "The Man" that was supposed to kick in and prevent this sort of thing from happening.

My honest reaction, if I'm being...honest..., is that I'm kind of glad it's out of the way. I doubt I'm going to be thrilled with Obama the man as president, but it does feel kind of nice seeing it actually happen. I always thought it would happen, and that it would happen sooner rather then later. While I'll always vote issues first, I have also always wanted a black person to be the US president, and solely for the symbolism it would represent - and to show how far the country has come. I am be no means saying we are anywhere close to perfect as far as race relations are(is?) concerned, but things are infinitely better then they were over a century ago, and have been progressively getting better over the decades; and the progress has been accelerating over the course of my 35 years. History will be the judge on the greater impact of it, but I think many people today might feel like a weight has been lifted, or had some of their preconceived notions challenged; again, on both sides.

That's my feelings about it. Not trying to start anything...just being honest. Obviously others will feel differently.

Just generalizing. WV always struck me as full of rural white folks; I am from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, I KNOW from rural white folks....and racially enlightened they ain't.

Okay. It's just that my ethnically Filipina wife grew up in WV and, when pressed to write about her childhood encounters with racism, couldn't come up with anything. Bupkus.

There may be a big gap between her experience and those of black people in WV, but I've just never had the impression that the state should be lumped in with Mississippi and Alabama.

I DO know that where I grew up, it seemed like there was racism against blacks in theory but when it came down to it, there just really weren't any around. And any that WERE around generally weren't your malt-liquor sippin' hood rats.

I am half-hispanic and actually have a full-blooded Filipino friend; we had a couple of full-blooded Asians (last name was Ju, is that Chinese?) in HS with me as well. My cousin (who is about 10 yrs younger than me) is black and one of the women I graduated with was black. There was a Mexican in the grade behind me.

Now, I can't speak for their experience, but as far as I knew, most of us were generally accepted (or not accepted) as individuals.

My hometown is about 20 miles from a reservation, and IIRC the Indians had to put up with some serious bullshit.

I found THIS SALON ARTICLE interesting in light of the conversation we are having in this thread. A snippet...

It is so fucking surreal to be in Canada and read about white-black racism in the states...I'll never get over it.

What a joker. Luke didn't destroy the Death Star with lasers.

Election spurs 'hundreds of race threats, crimes. - AP Press

Georgia gets some heavy representation in the first part of the article. Georgia natives/residents also seem to be the go-to people for reporters looking for any Caucasians willing to express their "concern" about having a black president, judging by a similar representation in a NYT article. Huh. But never fear northerners, lovely Maine does its best to stand out from the crowd!

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...a_fact_remnick

This long article from the New Yorker looks at Obama's campaign through the prism of race in America, particularly in regards to the civil rights movement. There's a quote from Colin Powell in there that made me all verklempt.