Help
Sign In
eugene robinson
January 2009 
A New Kind of Pride
Keith
Wow! This is an op-ed in the Washington Post penned by Eugene Robinson. Growing up in the south where I witnessed "the other side" of discrimination and seeing the injustice . . . I couldn't agree more . . .
A New Kind of Pride
Tuesday, November 4, 2008; Page A17
Whoever wins this election, I understand what Barack Obama meant when he said his faith in the American people had been "vindicated" by his campaign's success. I understand what Michelle Obama meant, months ago, when she said she was "proud of my country" for the first time in her adult life. Why should they be immune to the astonishment and vertigo that so many other African Americans are experiencing? Why shouldn't they have to pinch themselves to make sure they aren't dreaming, the way that I do?
I know there's a possibility that the polls are wrong. I know there's a possibility that white Americans, when push comes to shove, won't be able to bring themselves to elect a black man as president of the United States. But the spread in the polls is so great that the Bradley effect wouldn't be enough to make Obama lose; it would take a kind of "Dr. Strangelove effect" in which voters' hands developed a will of their own.
I'm being facetious but not unserious. In my gut, I know there's a chance that the first African American to make a serious run for the presidency will lose. But that is precisely what's new and, in a sense, unsettling: I'm talking about possibility, not inevitability.
For African Americans, at least those of us old enough to have lived through the civil rights movement, this is nothing short of mind-blowing. It's disorienting, and it makes me see this nation in a different light.
You see, I remember a time of separate and unequal schools, restrooms and water fountains -- a time when black people were officially second-class citizens. I remember moments when African Americans were hopeful and excited about the political process, and I remember other moments when most of us were depressed and disillusioned. But I can't think of a single moment, before this year, when I thought it was within the realm of remote possibility that a black man could be nominated for president by one of the major parties -- let alone that he would go into Election Day with a better-than-even chance of winning.
Let me clarify: It's not that I would have calculated the odds of an African American being elected president and concluded that this was unlikely; it's that I wouldn't even have thought about such a thing.
African Americans' love of country is deep, intense and abiding, but necessarily complicated. At the hour of its birth, the nation was already stained by the Original Sin of slavery. Only in the past several decades has legal racism been outlawed and casual racism been made unacceptable, at least in polite company. Millions of black Americans have managed to pull themselves up into mainstream, middle-class affluence, but millions of others remain mired in poverty and dysfunction.
A few black Americans broke through into the highest echelons of American society. Oprah Winfrey became the most powerful woman in the entertainment industry by appealing to an audience that is mostly white. Richard Parsons, Stanley O'Neal and others became alpha males in the lily-white world of Wall Street. Through superhuman skill and unbending will, Tiger Woods came to dominate a sport long seen as emblematic of white privilege.
Along came Barack Obama, a young man with an unassailable résumé and a message of post-racial transformation. Initially, a big majority of African Americans lined up behind his major opponent in the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton. The reason was simple: In the final analysis, white Americans weren't going to vote for the black guy. Better to go with the safe alternative.
But an amazing thing happened. In the Iowa caucuses, white Americans voted for the black guy. That's the moment Obama was referring to when he said his faith in the American people was vindicated. For me, it was the moment when the utterly impossible became merely unlikely. That's a fundamental change, and it launched a sequence of events over the subsequent months that made me realize that some things I "knew" about America were apparently wrong.
Even if John McCain somehow prevails, that won't change the fact that Obama won all those primaries, or that he won the Democratic Party nomination, or that he raised more money than any candidate in history, or that he rewrote the book on how to run a presidential campaign. Nothing can change the fact that so many white Americans entrusted a black American with their hopes and dreams.
We can all have a new kind of pride in our country.
Access: Public
This is the most exciting election ever. There is an amazing buzz everywhere. We, in Canada, are rooting for the big O to win the presidential race. Even the Universe is conspiring to make it so..
It's time.
I have a personal feeling of hope in America with Barack Obama being elected our next President of the United States. Being the white Mother who adopted two black sons, we have endured so much hatred and disrespect. I had no idea until I became black myself by becoming their Mother at just how hateful some people can be. Experiencing life as their Mother has shown me what I would have never known as a white woman without them in my life. I am blessed to be their Mother. I feel so pleased to know our country is willing to show up in large numbers to bring about the true spirit of America. Perhaps I also feel safer for my sons and myself now.
Thanks for all the posts Keith. You are a wonderful man promoting this important man. I appreciate you.
{{Hugggsss}}
YES WE CAN…AND WE JUST DID.
:-D
And so it is …
Yes we can
And so it is
Keith .. i was a transplant in the 1970's into Texas, from california, and was so dismayyed at what i saw.. in discrimination, in segregation (although illegal it still was the way)… i saw the words people spoke, & the fear & hatred… i was so shocked….. i've spent years trying to affect a change in how people viewed & spoke of racial issues, having experienced this from 'my shoes'. Which as you point out is different than anothers shoes. But each shoe is important in grasping this. I moved back to california in the early 80's… and have spent years processing what i had experienced. i'm so hopeful now.
yes we did… and this article you shared says so much of what we witnessed election night. i look forward to the future…. i am moving to feeling this new kind of pride :D
I am such an anomaly … because I am a white male who was raised in the south.
By all accounts I should be a steadfast conservative so stuck in their ways I should appear perpetually constipated. “Change?” … GOD FORBID that anything should change!!!!!!!! FIGHT IT!! … TOOTH-N-NAIL!!!!!
I may be exaggerating a bit here, but this is my perception of our current Republican party.
A universal law: That which we fear comes to us with greater speed and urgency.
Many, I have read and heard, are actually fearful of an Obama presidency. Some because of the color of his skin and others because he's of that “other party” which has been branded these past thirty or forty years as the party of taxation and elitism.
The Republican party now has a new brand that will take them a long, long time to overcome, perhaps several generations. They are the party of “obstructionism” … and George Bush …
hmmm … I don't know, and I realize that I am strange … and PLEASE don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled Obama won, I knew he would the moment he won Iowa. My daughter is a Golden American just like Obama without the African father that makes Obama an African American (her father's family is, like most Americans, from all over the planet but he is defined as an “African American” by others … as she is now too – and yes, we are working on un-defining her!) and I am 1st generation Dutch/Friesian. All that is just FYI.
I did not vote for Obama. I did make history though as I voted for a candidate who happened to be black and happened to be female: Cynthia McKinney.
The Green party candidate who actually really represented the kind of change I believe we need to make now. I realize that Obama represents the kind of change we may only be ready for now, and so I am happy.
But for me, it didn't matter who won … first, I already knew Obama would win barring thievery on such a grand scale it could not be covered-up. But, on all my key issues, the main one being: using violence to resolve conflict, both the red and blue were the same. Obama is going to continue down the same path we are on, only in a different way … which I suppose is good enough for now … but we cannot be fooled if we truly want the change we want him to represent.
Unless he starts dealing with: (1) the spread of disaster capitalism principles throughout the world, (2) the perpetuation of the use of violence to resolve conflicts, (3) the expansion of the debt-based economy to the global infrastructure (such as is being formed in the Security & Prosperity Partnership aka the American Union), and (4) the nearly non-existent individual and states rights and re-integration of Constitutional rights and values in America … i just ask: what real change does he represent?
Ok, so he's raspberry gelato instead of pistachio ice cream and boy, we were tired of pistachio and we are highly lactose intolerant! Yes, it is historic … but once we get over that … what kind of change are we going to demand from him?
Obama was not a “stretch” to vote for everyone who voted for him – the truth of the unsustainability of our future was so real, people voted at whatever straw of change was being offered … and with the complete black-out of other voices of real change coming from major political parties such as the Green Party and the Independent Party … what other choice did most American's know about or even have? It is like teaching children only how to add and subtract … without ever teaching them the way to exponentially calculate using mulitiplication or division.
… but as I sat and watched the silent tears come down my husband's face and I asked “why are you crying?” and he responded, “I just really can't believe this is real.” *Knowing* the truth: anything is possible; and *Understanding* that truth is a definite line that many Americans crossed in this election. We now not just understand this possibility, we UNDERSTAND its reality … Shakti Gwain teaches much about this in his teachings on visualization.
I think we really need to take a look at ourselves and see if we are REALLY still only ready for addition and subtraction … or whether we can help Obama be the real change we need using higher math than what he had to use in order to secure his position in the White House … I know he is capable of leading me and others like me who see the path to REAL CHANGE … the question is how many othes are like me who are willing to voice our truth and challenge him to rise above even the historic measure of what he accomplished … he cannot lead where the people are not ready to go.
peace & harmony,
elaine
'freedom must be exercised to stay in shape!'
I hope and pray you already have the answer to your question. Long, long lines … unprecedented interest and participation … dancing in the streets … a flood of tears …
Let us hope this suggests that yes, “real change” may now be possible.
Keith.. you said: I may be exaggerating a bit here, but this is my perception of our current Republican party.
Mine too & has been for so many years… and most of it has been in the language they have used. The staunch convictions to hanging onto what is old ways, cultures, 'traditional values' - authoritarian ways.. and being so closed to changing with what is RIGHT & JUST values… I will also add, from my years spent in texas & i still have close family origins lviing there, When George W.. would speak….. i would become filled with those feelings i left texas with .. which took me years to process.. what exactly it was that i couldn't stomach. I was mostly raised in an ethnically diverse…secular… progressive part of california. My years however spent in this republican.. old world… gave me opportunity to FEEL what is ugly & needs to change. If i had not experienced that, my grasp might be different. So i applaud the lessons that i endured – and it was also GW being president for 8 years that brought me through a new phase of looking at what ails us. He reminded me of the ways of the south. The years i spent trying to talk to people about what i felt… running up against brick walls…. YET now & this is for what elaine is speaking also………
elaine: i understand what your saying…… OBAMA uses different language - different methods - A NEW way to dialogue and affect change. WE can't really brow beat each other into shared values & submission or into a new way of thinking.. it takes time, tact, inclusivity & so what you hear from OBAMA isn't old verbage of 'fight' 'win' 'victory' - he's speaking of including all and helping one another to walk hand in hand down a path to a created shared vision we all can FEEL inside. i'm hoping this makes sense. OBAMA isn't about 'in your face' tactics. He's subtle & quite effective & that is the beauty in how he moves through this & how he will move us. SUBTLY as one peoples.
This i feel at more core when he speaks….. opposite of what i felt at my core when GW spoke.
harmony & love - Lisa