Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Number 44

It has been about 24 hours since Barack Obama was declared the 44th President of the United States and I couldn't be happier about it. I'm not sure whether I should be proud or ashamed that I heard the news, not from some hardcore station like CNN or MSNBC, but from Indecision 2008 with John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But really, where else can you hear a rant about the struggles of Hawaiian children making poi and selling tiki torches as a prelude to the announcement that Obama had won?



The thing is, all I've been hearing today is the phrase "first black President" over and over again. By no means am I saying that this isn't an incredible milestone for African-Americans, or anyone who isn't white, or Democrats for that matter. What I'm saying is that Obama won this election by having a good campaign and pushing a platform for change that many Americans believe in.

First of all, Obama is just as much white as he is black. His mother was a white American from Kansas, and his father was from Kenya. And that's another thing; his father is African - not African-American. He's not coming from the same background as many African-Americans whose families have been in the United States for centuries. It makes absolutely no difference either way, but I think it's important not to oversimplify things. He has just as much "African blood" in his veins as Tiger Woods has "Asian blood" pumping through his.


So let's not pin him down with labels and push him into categories just because the color of his skin is darker than that of any president before him. I feel that there is a great danger in doing so. We shouldn't expect him to pander to our African-American population more than any other group, nor should we negate him if he does. He is a man. He is going to be our next president. And, at the very least, he's going to do a hell of a lot better than the last one.

4 comments:

Jon said...

we were all watching Indecision as well, and when they announced that Barack had won, we thought they were joking until we flipped to CNN

Anonymous said...

Hooray! I love this picture! It really does look tasty...

Anonymous said...

in bush's defense, it looks kind of like a half eaten pretzel.

Sachin said...

This kitten picture is my favorite thing ever.