The more we continue to refer to Barack Obama as our nation’s “first black president,” the more we continue to guarantee the frustration of Martin Luther King’s dream that we as human beings be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin.
Barack Obama is, so far, nothing more nor less than our nation’s 44th president. Whatever achievements he accomplishes in that position will be accomplished because of his strength as a human being, not the color of the skin of one of his parents.
Obama takes power, urges unity vs. ‘raging storms’ – Yahoo! News.
(Edit to add: I really must credit my former student, Peche Toney, for beginning the inspiration for this thought days ago, I’ve realized. She posted the sort of note that made me proud to have once been her teacher, and I obviously thought it was extraordinarily cogent. It was only reading that Yahoo! news article that began to solidify the same sentiment in me.)
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I agree but I think it’s one of those things people will keep repeating for a while because there so proud. If you announced two years ago that our next president would be black people would have rolled there eyes or laughed. Not everyone mind you, but some would. I think eventually the “excitement” over our first black president (isn’t he more like multi-racial?) will pass once he starts working on the current problems we are facing as a country. I mean people who never voted before in their life voted simply so they could vote for Obama. People as old as 72 voted for the first time in this election (and thanks to Acorn people who were quite dead also got to vote. HA!). Once he starts working on the problems at hand people will either continue to talk about how Kennedyish he is or how he’s let us down. Obviously I hope it’s the former. I hope in fact that my grand children will vote for a president and talk about how Obamaish the guy they vote for is.
Sorry for the length. I’m working with a teacher to condense my words.
Well said! But GothamGirl is also right. I’m trying to let people have a few days of joy in having a black Democratic president and hoping he won’t do anything stupid too soon.
@Gotham (“I think it’s one of those things people will keep repeating for a while because there so proud.”): but shouldn’t we all be proud? I’m very proud to be an American today, and it has nothing to do with race but everything to do with the confidence that we elected the best person to the job.
@Will: it’s true, it’s a multi-faceted issue. But I wonder if the sooner he does something stupid, the better off we’ll all be. I supported him and voted for him, but I find the cult of personality that has sprung up around him mildly disconcerting, even if I am hugely pleased that so many people are so excited about -politics-, of all things.
I didn’t mean they as in “African American” I meant they as in they who keep mentioning it Which includes every race but not necessarily every body.
Let me speak from experience here and say don’t go up against a cult of personality until the feet of clay are showing. I’ve got all kinds of suspicions about Obama, but if I’m right, I won’t win any points with his fans by sharing them now. And I’m hoping that circumstances will force him to become the president his fans want him to be. At least with Obama, that’s possible, but Bush never could’ve been any better than he was.