So, I've been thinking this thought for a long time now, but it's not really an important thought, nor one that will result in anything fruitful, so I hesitate to write it down.
I have never been so proud in my life, nor felt so much like I belonged to this country, as I did on the night of November 4th, 2008, when Barack Obama was overwhelmingly voted in as the new president of this great nation.
I did not believe it possible that majority white, small town, elderly America was ready to vote in a black man, where a short 40 years ago, it fought to keep the black man from the ballot. But I am so proud that there is a new generation that has overwhelmingly overcome this issue. I am so happy.
But then I think to myself, if Barack had 'really' been a black man, had been black from his mother and his father, would he have been so easy to vote in? If he looked like the African American next door, would white America, Latino America, female America, been ready for him?
I fear that this is an almost dangerous, worthless question to bring up, but it sometimes stirs in my mind.
U S A!
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3 comments:
As salaamu alaykum Fatima,
I'm sure many other Americans are thinking the same thing, Allaah knows. I don't think it's touchy at all, in fact, I was thinking (but like you didn't want to mention my thought) that if Mrs. Obama was white, would he have gotten all the support he did from the Africanamerican community?
Yikes! Did I just write that?
I wonder if our generation who grew up watching sesame street, and only read about jim crow, segregation, and the civil rights movement and who thankfully don't see race as taboo had the biggest effect on our parents and grandparents. I hope to live to see the first women President, as long as it is not Palin, and I hope to see a day where a candidate does not have to prove he is the right religion or correct faith lingo. It bothers me that Barack had to 'reassure' the public that he was not a Muslim. As the constitution says their should be no religious test for any public office. I will always love the U.S.A. but we still have a long way to go, but I finally feel like we will be heading in the right direction.
You are definitley not the only one that is proud of what we finally had achieved and this is a man that I fervently believe that we can actually be proud of being our leader. He has already started leading before he has taken office, Jan 20 will not come soon enough!
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