"HHHHHHHHHHWHAT?! Why would you say that?", with non-black people probably thinking "You can't say that! You're black! You agree with most of his political philosophies! You read his autobiography and loved it! You told me to read it! And now you say something like that?!!"
This is true. And in a perfect world, well, I still probably wouldn't vote for Barack just yet; I think I'd give him another 4-8 years in the Senate before I'd want him as Commander in Chief, just so he can get a little firmer handle on the political skillet in Washington. With a little more experience on committees, a few more alliances made on both sides of the aisle, and a few more significant legislation authorings/sponsorings under his belt, I think he'd be the best president since JFK. Which leads me to my next point...
Quick! Name the most significant assassinations in US History! Lincoln. Jack Kennedy. Bobby Kennedy. Martin. Malcolm. What's the connection? Yeah, pretty obvious. But think about that... the only successful assassination attempts in the history of this country have pretty much occurred against targets whose primary political, social, and moral goals were to help gain equality for black Americans.*
Now, if people (some readers might blindly assume that the people I'm describing were either white, racist, or both, but a good scientist never makes those inherently obvious assumptions in fear of stating a hypothesis with an initial bias) in the 1860s, and 1960s (jeez, what's with the 60s? I'm not leaving my house between new years 2060 and 2070...) were adamant enough about keeping black people from getting people to be treated as equal citizens in their country, what in the HELL is going to happen if one of these citizens now tries to take his liberties a step further, and attempts to because the most important citizen in the country! These people (I'll call them "haters" for simplicity) did everything possible to stop the country from allowing black people to rise from less-than-citizen to the citizen level. Once a black person tries to rise to the highest authority position in the land? Do people really believe that this is a safe undertaking? Really? The haters killed Lincoln, Martin, and JFK because they were trying to create a level playing field. If a black man is trying to leave the level playing field and jump to the top of the mountain, I'm supposed to believe that the haters, after40 years, have just learned their lesson and will sit idly by and watch a black man, the hatee**, appear on television and in the world's eye, as their leader?
I want to believe that this nation is ready for it. I know that my life is much easier (with regards to racial tolerance) than my parents' was, and infinitely easier than that of my grandparents. I mean, most of my friends are white. I went grew up in a middle class community, went to a private high school and attended a fairly good university. I am happy at least part of Dr. King's dream has been fulfilled: "We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one."
But even myself, ever the racial equality optimist, knows that the whole dream has not been realized. I know that there are many towns in this country where my family would probably not be welcome to visit for a trip. Does it make me sad? Sure. But unfortunately its a reality of life that I have to accept. Do I wish our United States could be like the United States on the hit show 24, where the greatest president of all time was elected? Of course. But that's not our reality. Our reality is that we live in a country that probably isn't ready for a black President. And that makes me sad... but not as sad as I would be if I was able to see a qualified candidate for President of the United States elected into office, and having his life taken not of the conduct of character, but because of the color of his skin.
...This all came to because I was watching this youtube clip. I was getting really excited, proud, and happy to be an American , and happy that one man was able to make such a significant difference in our world, and then I read some of the accompanying comments (click on the comments marked as "spam" or the ones with multiple thumbs down) listed below the video and saw that there are definitely many closed-minded haters among us even today.
*Yes, I know, Mr. Lincoln has been quoted with saying that his goal was just to keep America as one united country and the slavery topic was a secondary idea, but if that's all he really wanted, he could've done it with much less bloodshed if he continued to support legal slavery.
**hatee? hate-ee? recipient of the hate; yeah I make up words, wanna fight about it?
No comments:
Post a Comment