Let me first say congratulations to Barak Obama.I didn’t vote for Obama and I strongly believe he was the wrong choice. Not because of a character flaw, but because I believe the policies he will attempt to enact will be the wrong ones for this country.
But there is still good reason to celebrate Obama’s victory, even if you are a Republican. Oh how far we have come. A little more than 3 months after I was born, Martin Luther King was assassinated. 40 years later an African-American has been elected president.
Some will say that this election proves racism is a thing of the past. I wish it were so. Racism is still with us, though much weaker then it was. The power of racism, in my opinion, has been both magnified and exaggerated for some time. I saw it as an employment attorney interviewing prospective clients who believed they were fired because of their race, and I saw it again with my students in the South Bronx. Racial discrimination is often blamed for adversity, even where it doesn’t exist. What is truly awful is when racism is used as an excuse not to try. Why should I work hard if people are just going to discriminate against me?
Obama’s election has conclusively demonstrated that racism and racists are not nearly as powerful as some have thought them to be. I fervently hope that this election will bring the United States closer to the dream of a color blind society.
I wish Barak Obama and our country success over the next four years. I will do my best to help by being a vocal critic of our President elect as I become a member of the loyal opposition.
1 comment:
We have come a long way from a President who once publicly stated (two years before he was elected) that, "I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say, in addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior. I am as much as any other man in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
Post a Comment