p>But once you come down off of the Civil Rights Movement high, you might
actually start to think about what Obama's presidency REALLY means. His office
and his job have NOTHING to do with race. His being elected DOES NOT improve
race relations in this country or abroad.
In fact, his presidency has
already proven that Americans are still STUCK ON STUPID when it comes to
cultural and racial sensitivity and tolerance, whether they be Black, White,
Brown, or otherwise.
Case in point:
As the inauguration
approached, more White and Latino Americans began asking my husband and I if we
were excited, if we were "going to party" with "our president", and other
paternalistic, foot-in-mouth questions. Am I planning to 'party' with 'my
president' on Tuesday? I'm supposed to be excited about this just because I'm
Black, with no regard to my values or even my political affiliation? No matter
what I stand for, Obama's being Black is supposed to be enough to make me want
to party? That's how you see it? Of COURSE that's how they see it, because
that's all we project! Then we allow the drive-by media to make it all about
race while pretending it's not all about race! Aaaaagh
[...]
Since Black Americans made this election all about having our first
African-American president, please believe that's what his tenure is going to be
about. The media played on White guilt while Obama campaigned, being sure to put
every proud Black face and African relative the man had on national television.
We showed our preoccupation with race, and they showed it to the world (If you
don't think this was intentionally done and that it didn't affect any White
voters, you are fooling yourself). So, understand that Obama's skin is always
going to be in the forefront during his tenure as president, whether you like it
or not, and whether people are willing to admit it or not.
So, what does
that mean?
* If he makes any huge mistakes (and he will), non-Black
Americans will deflect those failures upon Black leadership in general.
* If Black Americans as a whole do not improve their condition during
his tenure, Obama will appear to be an exceptional African-American compared to
the rest of us ignorant thugs.
* If Hollywood gets too progress-happy,
we may see a huge increase in Black characters who are professionals and
government officials in television and movies - that's just superficial and
annoying to ANYONE who watches it long enough.
* All of the cries of
disenfranchisement will be thwarted and considered baseless because if America
can elect an African-American president, the playing field must be leveled,
right? This isn't good if you are a proponent for Affirmative Action or other
special rights for minorities.
* Black History Month will probably bring
out the nationalistic tendencies in most of us, causing us to overdo it and put
our Blackness in everyone else's face, turning off White Americans who thought
that electing an African-American president was about togetherness and the
progress of the country as a whole when it was really about us 'having our day
in the sun'. This will serve to separate us even more.
* If Obama screws
up royally, White Americans won't be voting for another African-American
president for a long time, considering that so much emphasis was placed on his
being African-American.
Don't get me wrong, people; I understand the
historical significance of an African-American president, and it is something
that should be celebrated. However, I believe that we were exploited by the
Democratic Party and the left-wing media in order to further their own causes,
NOT ours! At the end of the day, we play the race card and we make race an issue
WAY TOO MUCH, even when we have the right to do so. It's like the football team
who discourages end zone dancing - when you have a victory, act like you
expected to. When you make your way to success, have some class; act like you've
been there before. We can still celebrate progress while having a certain amount
of necessary reservation. We want people to treat us as if they are colorblind
when we're not. So, when it works in our favor, we're happy. However, when the
racially charged beast we helped create comes back to bite us in the butt, who
will we blame then>
It's kinda already happening!
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