Jun 07 2008
reflections on political history
Last night as we watched the events unfold that ended the Democratic primary process and gave Barack Obama the nomination, the reactions of my family stick in my mind.
My son (who favors Obama a bit according to his peers) asked “Did he do it?” “Did he get it?” When I replied he did his reaction was YESSSS!!!!! with a fist pump.
Later as I watched the Obama’s speech with me wife she said, “I’m worried for him, do you think he is safe?” My response I don’t know.
As I listened to Tom Brokaw talk about how the younger generation was more color blind than his I wondered how real that statement was and whether I really wanted the younger generation to be color blind.
So what was my reflections? I am still processing the church resignation thing and I watch a movie yesterday called Carbon Copy starring George Segal and a young Denzel Washington. The premise of the movie (which seemed cheesy to me when it first came out) is a white guy discovers he has a son from a relationship (fling) with a black woman he eventually left to marry into the ultimate WASP family. When his son shows up tries to may his father pay for the way his mother was hurt everything goes into the toilet for this well to do white guy. He loses all of the things he came to expect as a white person, job family, clubs etc.
When he finally comes to grips with white privilege he tells his WASP father-in-law that the real issue is not just that blacks come into the game with two strikes its that the game is rigged so blacks can’t even get a third swing. Later on he tells his son “when I saw you all I saw was black”. In other words he didn’t see a person he saw his mental model of a whole race and then attached all he assumptions and preconceived notions about that race to the individual.
I wonder if that is what is happening with Barack Obama right now. I wonder if we are at a true moment in history when we can move beyond race as a defining factor? Or maybe if Obama is successfully it will be despite his race and because he is politically smart enough to beat at system that say to people like him two strikes and you are out!
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