"First black man as nominee" is oft said in the last several days. Well he is half white and half black. He's got as much white in him as he has black in him. Yet here he is that "articulate" black man. I think I have had an epiphany. As a lover of history I know that there have been many African Americans, who could and can out talk European Americans. And of course the reverse is true too.
The problem, or potentially the opportunity, faced by Obama is that most of white America has not really had to listen to an African American. "Those people" could easily be tuned out. The race problem was there problem. Their past was their problem. Their neighborhoods were their problem. And we white people could ignore them if we wished and we did wish.
They had "their leaders" the "leaders of the Black Community" and we could admire them or detest them from afar and continue living our white lives with the "real" leaders all white and rich. Now for the first time a man that looks black might be our leader, our representative, our voice. For me I am glad it is Obama since I think he has the smarts to make good choices.
I wish we would delve just a little deeper into our own psyche. After all there have always been black Americans of prominence from the very beginning of our nation. So it should really be no big deal right? Well it is a big deal. To me who will work for him and vote for him, and to those who still do not want "those people" making decisions.
We all need to get used to change. To the idea that a black man will speak for us, all of us. Maybe next time it will be a woman? Somebody has to start things off and this time it will be Obama. Some day in the future nobody will care if the nominee is a woman or a black man, or gay, or ten feet tall or a midget. We will hopefully pay more attention to what they want to do and how they want to do it.
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