Amidst all of the commentary and opinion, there’s room for news, including a brilliant piece from The New York Times on the day after the election – an article that if you didn’t read it online, you’d be lucky to see since The New York Times literally sold out from coast to coast that day (copies are still available on eBay if you’re willing to pay for them).
A watershed moment in American politics, they’re calling it, and I couldn’t agree more:
The election of Mr. Obama amounted to a national catharsis – a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Mr. Obama’s call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country.
But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago.
Even I was skeptical. Before his nomination, I didn’t think America would vote for a Black President. I didn’t think America was ready. I was sure there were too many people in America who wouldn’t listen to him and would vote against him simply because of the color of his skin. There are those people – without a doubt – but what I was reminded on Tuesday night is that there are few enough of them that they don’t matter anymore. I was pleasantly reminded that while to many people I’ll always be “just another ni**er,” to many many more people, I’ll be judged on my words and actions. I can’t describe how refreshing that is.
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer,” said Mr. Obama, standing before a huge wooden lectern with a row of American flags at his back, casting his eyes to a crowd that stretched far into the Chicago night.
“It’s been a long time coming,” the president-elect added, “but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, change has come to America.”
[ Obama Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls ]
Source: The New York Times (courtesy of TruthOut)