In the spirit of enjoying these historical times–at least through the weekend–a question has come to mind as I’ve read the good comments and reactions to my previous post.
A lot of the folks leaving comments, and folks I’ve seen contributing elsewhere, have generally had two reactions: (1) Obama’s bad for the country, and (2) I’m not really pleased with McCain. There’s a little bit of a “better of two evils” thing going on for some people. And many people are quick to point out that skin color shouldn’t be the deciding factor, but character and a host of other considerations. Amen to that. There’s a kind of lament over the fact that many African-Americans will vote for Obama because he is black, making skin color and our social definition of “race” the decisive issue.
Now viewed from the vantage point of many African-Americans, the issue becomes, “How can I not vote for Obama; we may never get this chance again. He’s the only African-American in this race and in the history of the country.”
One way this election is different for blacks and whites and Hispanics and Asians, etc. is that whites have always had a choice between at least two white candidates, and at times three. There’s been a field of white people to choose from. In contrast, this is the first time ethnic minorities have ever had opportunity to choose a non-white. And there’s no field to choose from, there’s just one candidate. So, there’s a certain sense in which some African-Americans and many, many other Americans feel compelled to cast a vote for Obama.
Here’s the question I’m gonna ponder a while. WWBD? “What would black people do if there were two black candidates running for president? How would African-Americans respond if there were more choice with substantive differences?”
As long as we’re daydreaming about a potential new future, what do you think?
