Technically no. We elected a biracial president. To many Americans, black is anyone who has skin color but if we say we elected a black president I feel that we are doing a disservice to Barack Obama and the family who raised him who happens to be white. I'm not trying to take away from the historic significance of this election. As I said, most Americans think of him as an African American and I truly think we have gotten to a place that was the stuff of dreams a mere 40 years ago. 40 years ago. There are people today who remember the 1960's. My own mother-in-law remembers growing up in the south and walking on the opposite side of the street from those with color. I can't imagine those days but how far have we really come?
I am still bothered by the fact that, in 2008, we still have to address the issue at all. The big question...is America ready to elect a black president? The resounding answer last night was yes. But why couldn't we just elect a president with no mention of color. I wonder if I will ever see the day when race is not an issue. When we can embrace our diversity, treat each other as equals, and focus on a person's merit rather than their skin color, their gender, their religion, their sexual orientation. Sadly, I'm not sure I will ever see that day. I can only hope my children and grandchildren do.
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3 comments:
I think its only an issue because it had never happened before....hopefully now that the racial barrier has been broken in this regard that a presidential candidate's skin colour/ethnicity won't be such an issue. I hope! Australia has yet to take that step, but here's hoping it will happen sooner rather than later.
I know what you mean! It would only not be an issue if it were not even brought up at all.
I agree. Small steps. I do believe there will be a day we won't even think about the "black" "asian" "woman" "gay" etc as it relates to anything.
It takes time though, and where we were sitting and drooling on ourselves on these issues 50 years ago, we are now taking lurching baby steps.
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