New Sheriff In Town
For the next 72 hours, I am deputizing all of the visitors to my blog. Deputies, if you hear anyone within earshot of you use the phrase “post-racial”, you are authorized to use lethal levels of logic and common sense to forcibly badger, cajole, or harass these mental midgets into admitting that the intricacies of race in America have not simply disappeared over night.
Some of the more calculating political pundits on the cable news shows began reframing the narrative from “can he do it?” to “how he should be doing it” before Barack Obama and his family left the stage at Grant Field. Because they know what I know – the only way they will be able to shape the Obama narrative going forward is to get out in front of the president-elect before he gets out in front of too many microphones.
There are two things Obama did yesterday that show just how much his presence will mean to our entire nation’s growth towards this post-racial utopia we all dream about. The first was his statement as he cast his vote in Chicago. “This is a downpayment on Dr. King’s dream.”
The second was the point in his victory speech where he pointed to the vote of a 106 year old black woman from Atlanta to illustrate the whole of the American experience over the last hundred years. He did not blink as he included the miseries of slavery, the injustice of Jim Crow, or the inequities still facing minority peoples in this country.
Obama has been labeled a "master of rhetoric", but his true strength is the ability, when necessary, to talk directly and intimately to his audience about race. For too long, we have talked about race in this country at arms length, dehumanizing the very people whose interests we claim to care about.
Our new sheriff, it seems, believes that that Americans of all stripes are fully capable of being honest about their own feelings towards those who are different than them, and mature enough to handle the uncomfortable and surprising revelations that lie in wait as they go down this path.
There’s a new sheriff in town alright – a black man with a brain.
Labels: Barack Obama, president-elect, race, Victory speech
posted by Brown Man at
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
3 Comments:
When Barack got the nomination, I was the first to tell people to not vote for him simply because he he is written off as a "black man" because that would make them an ignorant voter. I preached to many to view his platform and what issues are important to him. But last night after he won Florida then flipped Ohio I was amazed. Not five seconds later, it was announced that he was the President-elect. At the time I was watching BET which is rare for me but Jeff Johnson had a special and if that weren't enough, Michaela Angela Davis was among the round table. But after it hit me that Barack Obama won, I cried. Then when he gave his victory speech and I saw the different shade of 160,000 people in Grant Park, I thought about Dr.King's dream. That crowd was The Dream.
And oh how I hope we fry the idiots who dare say America is now "post racial". The pundits already tried that bs this morning - Mika Moron and Morning Joe Jackass.
Love the theme, "There's a new Sherriff in town." Way to go, Barack!
I loved this post, and I'm glad that you didnt wait to put this out there.
There are some of "us" who would think your timing is off, but I beg to differ.
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