It’s 1 a.m. on election night, and I can’t sleep……
Three things in this world make me tear up spontaneously. My son doing just about
anything, the opening drum roll of Springsteen’s “Born to Run” in concert, and about
half of the speeches given by President Elect Obama.
Today, an amazing, historic thing happened. The United States, a country torn by
civil right problems only 40 years ago, elected an African American to the most
powerful position in the world, President of the United States.
Color has never been an issue in my world. My father played basketball at a pretty
high level, and as far back as I can remember, African American’s have been a part
of my world in a very personal way, whether in a locker room, or at my parents
parties at a time when it still wasn’t always cool to socialize so openly. I grew up in
the East bay of San Francisco and Los Angeles, so I’ve been around pretty much
every ethnic group you can think of, and honestly, the only people I have trouble
with are Sicilians. They keep telling people that they’re Italian, but we all know they’re not, at least according to my Great Grandma Yusi. Other than that, to me,
people are pretty much just people, don’t really care what they look or sound like,
everyone’s got a story and I want to hear them all.
Anyway, during this whole process of electing a new President, the fact that
President Elect Obama was black wasn’t lost on me, it just wasn’t important. Never
thought about the social impact for the country and for the millions of African
Americans that lived through, or are a product of, the civil strife that we as a nation
dealt with not all that long ago. My desire for Mr. Obama to become President was
purely selfish in that I just wanted someone smart in the job, someone that inspired
us as a country and someone that would give us hope in the American Dream once
again. Someone that I could speak highly of to my son as an inspiration in what
America can do and should be. Someone to make us all proud. Hell, I was willing to
settle for someone that wouldn’t make me cringe whenever he spoke. Either way,
color just wasn’t important to me.
But last night, sitting there watching the returns come in with my son, my wife and
my best friend, I realized really, how little the color of a man means.
See, my best friend Eric is African American. He and his brother are the two best
friends I’ve ever had, in fact, they’re brothers to me, we go that far beyond the word “friend”. And when it was announced that Obama won, Eric had the same reaction I did, that it was finally over, and that we have someone now that is actually qualified for the job. We talked for hours and I don’t think color came up once until he was leaving to go home and jokingly he said, “we got a brother in the White House”. So even though I never really thought about it, I’m pretty sure, on a personal level that I’ll never have to deal with, Eric, and millions of others, had been.
I know, it doesn’t seem like that big a deal, but it is when you start listening to the
people who’s candidate lost and they’re saying things like “the Blacks just voted for one of their own”, or “Powell supported him because he’s Black”. All that does is show the ignorance that’s still out there in our country. To belittle the votes of a large, productive, and established part of the American population by saying that they voted for a guy because they look alike, well, it’s just wrong and embarrasing for those that say it. Maybe, just maybe all of those people voted for him because he was the best man for the job and because with his words, he inspired them and made them believe that there’s hope for a better life.
End of the story, laying there in bed, I started thinking about how things will change, not just for me, but for the minorities in the country, not just African Americans, that now have a face to look up to and admire with no strings attached. I think for the first time, the American Dream really is something that all of us, every race, creed and color, can truly dream of obtaining simply because our President Elect has darker skin than most of us. Kind of sad, but true that it takes that to make it a reality for millions.
And while thinking that, I started tearing up again thinking that for the first time, “we got a brother in the White House” and how proud I was at that moment to be an American and to have voted, without consideration of color or religion, for that man. It seems so simple a thing to do, yet so powerful in the long run. Hopefully, as my son gets older, he and his generation won’t see any color at all.
My last hope, is that President Elect Obama plays Earth, Wind and Fire’s “All ‘n’ All” at his inauguration just to fuck with people in the Red States.
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