The Audacity of Hope Indeed

Emma got a text message from a boy in her class yesterday morning. He sent it at 5:30 a.m. He had just found out that Obama had won and was so very excited and happy. It touched me because he's black and it got me imagining what this must be like for him. So many Americans feel hope and pride and excitement for the first time in a long time right now, but I'm not sure that white America can have any idea what this means to so many black Americans - especially to a twelve-year-old black boy.

I remember back a few years ago when Joe Lieberman was the vice presidential nominee and there was all of this discussion about a Jewish candidate and how it would be the first time we'd have a Jew in the White House. I felt so embarrassed and ashamed that it was even an issue. That it was even being discussed. What should it matter? Has America not come further along than this? Apparently not.

The same was true for me this go around. I felt embarrassed and annoyed that there was so much discussion about Obama's ethnicity - having an African father and Caucasian mother - why should it matter? The question really needed to be, Who was best for the job? We shouldn't be making a big deal out of it no matter if we thought his particular race was a good thing or bad thing. I know that this is idealistic thinking on my part but I feel like it's something that should be strived for, even if it is considered unrealistic.

But I didn't think about it through the eyes of a twelve-year-old black boy. A boy that has probably been taught about his ancestors who were slaves. Who has surely experienced racism himself many times over. Who could never picture himself as the president of this country - ever. It matters to him. It matters to him that the new president is half-black. It means something profoundly positive to him in a way he's never experienced before and maybe never thought he would in his lifetime. It's no small thing to him.

I heard a black woman senator talk yesterday of the slaves that were used to build the Capital and the White House and how they never, in their wildest dreams, could have ever imagined that someday a black man would take the oath of the highest office in the nation on those Capital steps that they were laying. Or live as chief resident in the house that they were building. It is amazing. It does matter. It gives us all hope that we have come a long way and we will successfully go a long way still in the coming years, whether the issue is racial equality, or the economy, or healthcare, or war or whatever other issues we have to deal with. We'll find our way.