Reader Responses #2

This one comes from C. in NYC. Enjoy!

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On the good faith that Obama will fix the economy and I will be reimbursed $0.02 sometime in the future through some economic reform something, I’ve decided to share these 2 cents with you now:


I’ve been having a lot of conversations about this amazingly historic election lately. They have given me the impression that most of us are insanely excited, but beyond the excitement I think a lot of us are at a loss of what to make of everything. Emotions well up and we are overcome. And why shouldn’t they? We have been so invested in this, worked so hard, wanted it so badly, donated, campaigned, and known the whole time that we were witnessing something most of our parents and grandparents probably believed was impossible when they were our age. And by impossible, we know they would have meant impossible. As Obama has said several times in his speeches, “This is our moment.” So I have begun thinking about what the response is to that statement. This is our moment for what? Everyone is saying this was the most important election in history. That we are at a critical point. But why? What is it about this moment that is so critical?



We all know the short answers. Barack Obama is (quite literally) an African-American man who is also now our Commander in Chief (or almost). And not because of a pile of hidden chads or a thousand disenfranchised voters. If this were a sports event he’d be getting a ring the size of a fist crusted with jewels for a gloriously decisive and swift game. We The People voted him into office through a democratic process. To me, these short answers bring up a whole host of exciting and, for whatever reason, unspoken questions and ideas:

Does this election expand the definition of “We the People” to include all the people in our borders? How does this affect our ideas of immigration? In a strangely ironic sequence of events, Barack Obama senior willingly immigrated to the United States from Africa and had a son who is now the president. And who is also technically bi-racial. Are we closer or farther from understanding anything about that identity? Or where it fits in our new (?) definition of “We the People?” Do we expect President Obama to take on issues of racial justice? Or is it enough of a victory that he hold the office he holds? How will this affect others who still fight for racial justice? And our perception of the struggle that has already happened? Did SNCC organize so that we could have a Black President today? Or did the desire to see people of color in positions of power come with other assumed conditions – like, when we get to that point, surely we will also have established educational equality… How are those issues affected by this election? Do we change the way we approach them? Certainly we have an infinite number of new ways to inspire the youth of color. So I think we also have to examine the ways in which their identities will be shaped in a way fundamentally different from our own. At some point, we will be very old and they will run the country. Will the things we do now make it unnecessary for them to understand the harrowing effects of racism, homophobia, etc, in the ways we may identify? Is this the starting point towards reforming our institutions in such a way that they lose the biased tenets upon which they were built? What is the argument for reparations? Why is it a current debate and why does the idea of reparations still hold enough meaning for it to remain a debate? Do any of us really understand the concept “post-racial society” or if we’re really in one?

What does it mean that we have an African American (male) President? What does it mean that we wanted something and thought it was basically impossible? I think it’s fascinating that to a certain extent we associated our very concrete votes with some intangible impossibility.. which is now, not even just “a possibility.” It would have been “a possibility” had it been a close race and he lost by 5 or 6 electoral votes and it went into recounts all through the night and CNN's political team worked themselves into a froth predicting and calculating and speculating into the wee hours. Which I think is what a lot of us expected. What we prepared ourselves for. So there’s no doubt that this is an exciting time. And I think it’s a beautiful thing to let our emotions take over because especially in this day we are exposed to a lot of things we are never given the space to feel. So while I would rather Obama begin President-ing right away, maybe it’s good that we have until January to develop a real understanding of what all the changes we want are, what they mean, and how we feel about it.