A Whole New World

Well, Obama’s our new President. And lots of people have had lots of reactions.

The crowd watching Obama erupted with joy in Chicago’s Grant Park.

People danced.

And Oprah cried on some random guy’s shoulder.

But what was interesting to me during this monumental time was my father’s reaction. I called him when CNN announced Obama’s victory.

“Hi Dad, it’s Taurence,” I said, with anticipation for what he would say next.

“Hey, boy.” He said. That’s all? I thought. No, “Oh my goodness I can’t believe it?”

No dancing? No crying?

“So, what do you think about the election? Don’t you think that’s crazy?” I said, trying to  get more of an emotional reaction.

“Yup, it is. It is.”

The rest of the conversation was loaded with more of his ‘yups’ followed by ‘uh-huhs’.

You have to understand that my father did not believe that this country would choose a man with any droplets of black blood in his system, let alone a man who’s half-black.

My father was born in 1956, right after integration became law. He grew up fighting whites for calling him or a sibling a “nigger”. White football coaches despised him and other black athletes for being more talented than the white guys on the team, so they went out of their way to force the blacks off the team. White adults bombed school busses in his city at the time. I guess can’t blame him for being a bit doubtful that Obama would become the President.

We’d get into arguments during the primaries. Once Obama won Iowa, my father still swore that Obama would not become President. In my Father’s world, that was inconceivable.

In most people’s worlds where I’m from, it’s all about how white people supposedly take care of their own, how whites despise and want to cheat blacks, and how whites are holding them in the same place. Obama’s victory for many of them wasn’t just inconceivable; it just wasn’t going to happen.

Now, they are realizing what I’ve known for a long time: there are some good white folks in the world!

I am not saying that if you’re white and voted for Barack, then you are good, and if you’ve done otherwise, you’re to be hated. Lord knows there’s enough crazy people wishing doom upon Americans because of this election. To see Barack in office means that our country is moving forward, our country is recognizing that we’re in this together as long as we’re humans and as long as we are on Earth, and it means that our citizens in this great country are beginning to really look past the outer, and into the inner, past skin and into the person, past what separates and into what unites. THAT is what thrills me. I never forget how far blacks have come.

The lynching.

The gruesome killing of Emmitt Till.

The beatings, fire hoses, dog attacks. All a part of the freedom fight.

I constantly remind myself at least once a week. I’m a student of civil rights… and I can’t help but be thrilled, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS.

So, I am excited that my father’s reaction that night was so limited. He was a man of few words that night. Maybe that’s because he’s had to eat all of his words he’d said against Obama in the past two years.

My father, and many people in this country, has been busted out of their doubtful worlds. This is the change I felt Obama was talking about during his campaign. A new change in the world. A whole new world. Let the transition begin!