Now, the Race Issue.
An amazing thing is happening in my neighborhood today: After an election where race was not discussed, we have gone from 0 to total elation after electing Barack Obama as the first black president. There are a million factors mixed into today’s excitement but race feels dominant by far. But where was the discussion before election day? Were we all shocked to learn that he’s a black person?
I think what’s happened is that we’ve had the most exciting outcome possible: We’ve elected a President without considering his race in the decision. Equal treatment is what we wanted all along. What absolutely blows me away is that because we didn’t want to elect a President based on race, individually we chose not to discuss the obvious historical significance of an Obama win until after it was over. You could label this a denial of racism and its significance, but I’m not that cynical. Given the importance of the issues in this election, each of us decided that there were vastly more important elements in a leader than his race. Now we’re elated to discover that our neighbors felt the same way.
