Now What?

Now What?


Last night was a huge step in American history, no doubt about it. How big of a step remains to be seen. Last night many of my white brothers and sisters took the historic step of supporting to victory the first president of the United States who identifies as African American. The reasons for their decision will be bandied about by pundits in the weeks to come. As I watched the news last night though, I heard within moments of Presidents Obama's victory the words I knew were coming, but was hoping weren't. News people, mostly from the right, and even John McCain himself made the statement, in not these exact words, that the question of racism needed to be put to rest.
The question now is not whether racism in America exist, it does. It's not whether or not the community of color has the exact same opportunity as their White counterparts, they don't. The question isn't whether or not President Obama some how now owes the White community a debt of gratitude, he doesn't. The question is; now what? Are we going to follow the time honored tradition of short term memory that has plagued us for centuries. Are we going to slip back into our denial and personalize everything with the ever famous, "I'm not racist, because...." The newest will be, "I voted for Barrack Obama, so I'm not a racist." On the first opportunity we get, when President Obama slips up (and he will), will we say to ourselves that it's the last time we vote for a candidate of color, because our short term memory will not allow us to remember one of the worst eight years in American history in which we had a President that may be tried with war crimes, and an economy that is the worst it's been in decades. Or are we going to remember all of the reasons that we voted for Obama in the first place. The faith that he represents something better and bigger then all of our own petty concerns.
Last night vindicated my hope in my white brothers and sisters a little. OK, a lot. The overwhelming numbers by which President Obama won were staggering. A message was definitely sent to the Republican party that people are sick to death of them. More then that, for the first time in history White America said that they were willing to elevate a black man to the most powerful position in the land. I would ask my White brothers and sisters as they read this to remember the warning that President Obama gave us in the waning days of his campaign. Don't get cocky. This is big, but the work has just started back up. The work that a lot of us were doing already, I hope will be joined by millions of other White Americans. If we want people of color, poor people, disabled persons, and the lesbian, gay, bi, and transgendered community to be able to look at their children and tell them with a straight face that they can be whatever they want to be we have a long way to go.
Barrack needs to be shining example of what is possible. What Barrack does not need to become is a footnote in history or the example that we pull out (like Oprah) every time we get tired of listening to people of color point out that the oppression in their communities makes succeeding difficult. We need to stop and realize the reason that this moment in history is so huge is that it's because it's a first. We as white people need to realize that while Barracks story is amazing, that he hardly represents the average success story for people of color in this country. No, racism is still alive and well. When a person of color, a woman, a person in the lesbian, gay, bi and transgendered community can be in a position of power without them being a credit to their race, gender, or sexual orientation then we will be on the right track. When all the groups mentioned above finally have access to the resources and power that white people have, without having to be or act like somebody that they are not (i.e white, male, heterosexual, and able bodied), or without all the extra obstacles that white people don't have to overcome then we will be at a place that we can be proud of.
So I encourage all of you reading this to rejoice and celebrate in our historic victory. This was a victory for all of us. White, Black, Asian, Native American, Latino/Latina, people from all different communities, genders, backgrounds, abilities, and sexual orientations can know, that no matter the outcome, that what we did was say that we were willing to change. Now that we have made another huge step in the quest for an equitable society now is not the time sit back and say that we have done all we can. Now is the time to continue on the path toward healing, and to ask ourselves, now what?