The Election of Barack Obama
Ending the Racial Stigma
While wrestling with the usual security, social, and economic issues, U. S. voters not only voted for a political party and/or an individual candidate, but they also voted for the end of centuries of shame and guilt associated with racism. The citizens of the U.S.A. have had to battle racism, both real and perceived, since the first slaves were brought to the country in 1619.
White Quakers in Philadelphia formally began denouncing the practice of slavery in 1688. The Republican Party formed in 1854 with its main issue the abolition of slavery. After the Civil War, the emancipation of slaves, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional Amendments to integrate Blacks into full citizenship, the country was still plagued with racism as the Democratic Party instituted and maintained segregation through Jim Crow laws and black codes, enforced they its terrorist arm, the Ku Klux Klan.
Racism’s Recession
After the 1960s civil rights laws were passed, American racism finally began to recede and has been doing so ever since through the efforts of leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, who reminded Americans of the Founding Fathers’ claim that “all men are created equal.”
Despite the fact that Dr. King raised public awareness that people should be evaluated by the “content of their character” not the “color of their skin,” an industry of victimization sprang up and has been perpetuated by race-baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Instead of continuing the King tradition of fostering racial unity, Jackson, Sharpton, and their ilk have perpetuated false claims that America is still a racist nation.
The End of False Accusations
Americans are tired being called racist because they know they are not; according to Shelby Steele, “Of course, it is true that white America has made great progress in curbing racism over the last 40 years. I believe, for example, that Colin Powell might well have been elected president in 1996 had he run against a then rather weak Bill Clinton.”
Without a doubt, there are still racists among the American populace, but the allegation made by the Jacksons and Sharptons that an institutionalized, systemic racism still keeps Blacks from reaching their highest potential constitutes a prevarication that the American people have yearned to see refuted. Steele adds, “It is exactly because America has made such dramatic racial progress that whites today chafe so under the racist stigma.”
Obama and the Hope of Change
When an African American named Barack Hussein Obama arrived willing to seek the highest office of the land, Americans heartily welcomed the chance to vote for him and thus be able to show the race-baiters, the supercilious Europeans, and one another that Americans are not racists. The fact that widespread racism has been dead for decades in this country was finally demonstrated with the election of Barack Obama to the highest office. As Shelby Steele explains, “I don't think whites really want change from Obama as much as they want documentation of change that has already occurred. They want him in the White House first of all as evidence, certification and recognition.”
The useful change that an Obama presidency might effect is to put the captains of the industry of victimization out of business. How hollow will their cries of “institutionalized racism” ring with a black man at the head of the institution.
Barack Obama
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