Good Night.
Nov. 4th, 2008 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wileypeterBy the time my son greets the world, this country will see an African-American in the Oval Office.
He will grow up in a reality different from that of my youth. Yeah, there was always a possibility that someone of color would lead the nation, but possibility has almost nothing to do with reality.
As hard as it is for me to accept (in light of the foul taste the last two Presidential elections left in my mouth), this is now a real thing. The USA not only elected a black man, but one with a profoundly non-anglo name. I keep waiting the sudden lateral motion of a rug being pulled out from under my feet, but I may have to set aside my preemptive acceptance of defeat.
By the time my son greets the world, this country will see an African-American in the Oval Office.
Maybe this shouldn't mean as much as I'm making it. It may just end up being another politician garnering enough support to gain power. But dammit, it does mean something that in this case the politician is someone who would have been hanged by a mob for daring to speak out in a time not too long past.
That barrier may still bar some good candidate from that office in the future, but no longer is it an unimaginable thing to have a black President. We still need to see a woman elected, and I would be thrilled to see a great woman leader take down the opposition in a future election (preferably 2016). Right now I see it happening before my son is old enough to vote. The reality must change. The barriers must drop. It won't mean my son has a greater chance to be President. The opposite would be true, really. The point would be, rather, that the world my son will inherit from my wife & me won't be as limited a world as we received, and one in which the best probabilities aren't ruled out by a non-sequitur like gender or race.
He will grow up in a reality different from that of my youth. Yeah, there was always a possibility that someone of color would lead the nation, but possibility has almost nothing to do with reality.
As hard as it is for me to accept (in light of the foul taste the last two Presidential elections left in my mouth), this is now a real thing. The USA not only elected a black man, but one with a profoundly non-anglo name. I keep waiting the sudden lateral motion of a rug being pulled out from under my feet, but I may have to set aside my preemptive acceptance of defeat.
By the time my son greets the world, this country will see an African-American in the Oval Office.
Maybe this shouldn't mean as much as I'm making it. It may just end up being another politician garnering enough support to gain power. But dammit, it does mean something that in this case the politician is someone who would have been hanged by a mob for daring to speak out in a time not too long past.
That barrier may still bar some good candidate from that office in the future, but no longer is it an unimaginable thing to have a black President. We still need to see a woman elected, and I would be thrilled to see a great woman leader take down the opposition in a future election (preferably 2016). Right now I see it happening before my son is old enough to vote. The reality must change. The barriers must drop. It won't mean my son has a greater chance to be President. The opposite would be true, really. The point would be, rather, that the world my son will inherit from my wife & me won't be as limited a world as we received, and one in which the best probabilities aren't ruled out by a non-sequitur like gender or race.
