Race Relations in the U.S. isn't What People Thought
Jacob Matthes
Posted on: 11/24/08 Section: Opinion
When this country of shackled lineage elected its first African-American president, something weird and wonderful occurred. As if a large weight had been lifted from its chest, the whole nation exhaled together, and for the first time in a long time felt as if the country had been given a clean slate.
People in the streets felt different. Wearing an Obama T-shirt earned you a day filled with honking horns, high-fives, and prominent fist pumps. In Los Angeles, these three things very rarely come from strangers.
The meaning of all this is quite sappy, but it's the real stuff. Race relations in the modern United States isn't like a lot of people thought it was.
During the election there was wide ranging speculation that "racist" America would never elect a black man as president. Many swore there still existed large-scale sects of racially intolerant Americans in places like the mid-west. Those people have been proven wrong.
On the night the United States elected Barack Obama I was sitting in a pizza joint in La Cañada drowning my fears of a close race in a cold pitcher. The place was packed with people of all ethnicities - a resemblance of the great melting pot incarnate.
When CNN announced their projection, the whole crowd erupted in uncanny, jolted splendor. An elder Latino man with a mustache and bald head started chanting: "We did it."
Boy, how we did it. That uncanny splendor can still be felt. It lingers. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show joked the night after about how people in the streets of New York had started doing something strange. They were looking each other in the eyes, and smiling.
Instead of rearing back from an obvious chance for progress, the nation as a whole put its strong foot down, threw away the white hood for good, and displayed to everyone watching just how much we have transcended our controversial past.
When the nation chose Obama it chose to show the world truth about equality in America. Until then, skeptics could claim equality in America is a façade, the land where you could be anything - as long as you were a Caucasian male. Now populism waves proudly in the forefront of our image. America: a place where all truly are equal. Just look at the president-elect.
People in the streets felt different. Wearing an Obama T-shirt earned you a day filled with honking horns, high-fives, and prominent fist pumps. In Los Angeles, these three things very rarely come from strangers.
The meaning of all this is quite sappy, but it's the real stuff. Race relations in the modern United States isn't like a lot of people thought it was.
During the election there was wide ranging speculation that "racist" America would never elect a black man as president. Many swore there still existed large-scale sects of racially intolerant Americans in places like the mid-west. Those people have been proven wrong.
On the night the United States elected Barack Obama I was sitting in a pizza joint in La Cañada drowning my fears of a close race in a cold pitcher. The place was packed with people of all ethnicities - a resemblance of the great melting pot incarnate.
When CNN announced their projection, the whole crowd erupted in uncanny, jolted splendor. An elder Latino man with a mustache and bald head started chanting: "We did it."
Boy, how we did it. That uncanny splendor can still be felt. It lingers. Jon Stewart of the Daily Show joked the night after about how people in the streets of New York had started doing something strange. They were looking each other in the eyes, and smiling.
Instead of rearing back from an obvious chance for progress, the nation as a whole put its strong foot down, threw away the white hood for good, and displayed to everyone watching just how much we have transcended our controversial past.
When the nation chose Obama it chose to show the world truth about equality in America. Until then, skeptics could claim equality in America is a façade, the land where you could be anything - as long as you were a Caucasian male. Now populism waves proudly in the forefront of our image. America: a place where all truly are equal. Just look at the president-elect.
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