America and Race: The Obama Presidency

If there are those among us that think racism in America was on its deathbed with the election of Barack Obama to President of the United States, they should pay attention to the madness swirling around this country in regards to Obama being Black and President. If the craziness coming out of the mouth of Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck of the Fox Network sounds outlandish, then it’s because it is. Obama has been called socialist, fascist, a Muslim and a Magical Negro by denizens of the Far Right. They are saying he is a failure although he has only been in office for 5 months. The Republican Party is in tatters and in the absence of anything worthwhile to say, they say the most outlandish things. I only wish this was craziness that could be easily dismissed, but the fact is that its not.

Let’s take a look beyond the numbers of the 2008 National Election from a race and ethnicity point of view:

• Whites make up 74% of all voters. 55% voted for McCain, 43% voted for Obama
• Blacks make up 13% of all voters. 95% voted for Obama, 4% voted for McCain
• Hispanics make up 9% of all voters. 67% voted for Obama, 31% voted for McCain
• Asians make up 2% of all voters. 62% voted for Obama, 35% for McCain

(Source: http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/exit-polls.html )

Final popular vote tallies were 66,862,039 for Obama versus 58,319,442 for McCain. Obama’s victory was very definitive, but he did not win because of a racial watershed moment in America. The fact is that the majority of white people voted for McCain and this was in the wake of Bush’s eight-year reign of ineptitude. Obama won because he was able to forge a coalition that was multi-racial. We can only wonder as to how many people that did not vote for Obama did not due to the fact that he was not white.

The point I am driving at is that there are lot of pissed-off people on the extreme Far-Right of the GOP that have convinced themselves that Obama’s presidency is not legitimate. The most-reported reason is that he was not born in the US, so therefore cannot be President. They think he is part of a global Muslim Brotherhood. In my opinion, these are all pseudo reasons, yet the real reason is that their idea of what an American president looks like is not Obama. Reports of gun sales going up immediately after last November’s election, to me is a sign of ugliness to come. Some of the ugliness has arrived already with the murder of George Tiller, the late-term abortion doctor and the killing of National Holocaust Museum security guard, Steven Johns. What makes this really scary is the fact that these sociopaths believe they have a noble cause in committing murder of people they deem worthy of dieing. I wonder how many of the crazies think Obama should be put to death because he was not their choice for President and he is Black.

Before there is a rush to judgment, let us consider and remember that all of us have a racial identity and at most times are aware of it. However, we don’t let it override our common sense and humanity to force us to treat people of different racial background in a negative and defeating manner. But just think, there are people that feel strongly enough about ethnicity and its power-dynamic in the history of the United States, to want to kill other people over it.

The November election night celebration held in Grant Park in downtown Chicago was a truly special moment for me because I was there to witness people of all ethnicities standing together to usher in a historic moment in America. It is we that know and understand that we are all in this together and that we must continue to show solidarity and hope that all of America joins us in making our country a better place to live for all. Together we formed a voting majority and won, however it is individually and collectively that we must keep each other from falling prey to simplistic thinking about people based on their skin color. Obama’s victory last November in no means signals the death knell for racism, but it was a step in the right direction. There is still a long way to go on that front. It’s just really unfortunate that such a moment has to be related to the ugliness to come.

Gerry Malone a.k.a SubZeroPoet