“It’s time for us to show the world that we are not a country that ships prisoners in the dead of the night to be tortured in far-off countries, that runs prisons that lock people away without ever telling them why they are there or what they are charged with. We are not a country that preaches compassion to others while we allow bodies to float down the streets of a major American city.”
“We are America. We are the nation that liberated a continent from a madman, that lifted ourselves from the depths of Depression, that won civil rights, and women’s rights, and voting rights for all people. We are the beacon that has led generations of weary travelers to find opportunity, and liberty, and hope on our doorstep. That’s who we are.”
-Senator Barack Obama, presidential campaign letter
Is the United States ready for a black president? Or, to be more accurate, multiracial president? How many U.S. citizens know or care to know Barack Obama’s actual ethnicity? Does race factor into Obama’s ability to lead our country? How about a female president? And a ”First Man”/former President at her side? Why or why not? The fact that a black or female president is a real possibility in 2008, and oftentimes a difficult subject to talk about in casual company, seems to be a source of tension as the election approaches. Is it wrong to think that our society, for the most part, has transcended hatred based solely on race or gender? I imagine most of us know the tension persists - at home, in our neighborhoods, across state lines, and certainly on a global level.
The debate about race and gender politics stemming from the campaigns for the upcoming election encourages citizens to expand their ways of thinking, question what it means to be “American,” and to accept the potential for change. I receive e-mails and letters from the Barack Obama campaign and enclosed in the last letter was a copy of an article from The New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman (author of The World is Flat) entitled “Obama Could Repair U.S. Image.” Friedman, a current leading expert on foreign affairs and author of several influential books and articles on the subject, argues that Obama shows the most potential to mend the “broken relationship” between the United States and the rest of the world.
Upon returning from a trip to Africa, Friedman entered the U.S. at the height of the Don Imus controversy (a show on which he had been a guest). The ordeal, he writes, “underscored how much work we have to do in learning how to listen, talk and yes, joke with one another across racial, gender and religious lines.” Certainly, the Don Imus controversy highlighted the debate over acceptable speech concerning race and gender not only on morning radio, but in hip-hop music, over the Internet, and throughout all the various media outlets.
Friedman promotes communication on contentious issues, such as the Don Imus case, and argues that Obama (as President) would provide the best moderator for a wide discussion. He explains, “I believe that what has propelled his candidacy up to now is that many Americans have projected onto him their hunger for community, their hunger for a president with the voice, instincts and moral authority to make it so much harder for foreigners to be anti-American or for Americans to be anti-one another.” Only an informed leader - someone with experience in civil rights cases and on issues concerning diversity - can communicate effectively with foreign leaders to put the U.S. back in good standing around the world.
Black, white, female, male – connotatively, do these words elicit a more powerful response than they should?
The respect attributed to Barack Obama so far in his campaign gives our society a design of acceptance that can be received with overdue optimism. Throughout history ordinary men (and I use that term loosely as I feel the term currently reflects mankind and not gender) have transcended to extraordinary status by presenting these models for us to follow. Right now Obama stands as an ordinary man with extraordinary potential. However, the contention exists in the fact that if he were to be elected President, the situation’s primary aspect of distinction would be his skin color and the fact that no President before him had dark skin. He would be the first black President.
This post started out with a seemingly simple question. However, the question first identifies the individual by color and then by presidential candidate. Is that the way voters see the upcoming election? In retrospect, that question may serve as the answer as to whether or not we as a society are ready.
-Thank you to the contributions by Brian Vesci
