No ordinary moment
There are (I suppose this was inevitable) some skeptics now claiming that people are rejoicing at Obama’s election because he’s black – which is true in one way but false in another. The way it’s true is probably obvious enough; the way it’s false is that 1) that’s not the only reason and 2) we would have been rejoicing anyway. Obama’s being black is neither necessary nor sufficient for the rejoicing. Here’s why. Suppose a Sarah Palin who was black – identical to Palin in every other way, but black. A very different, much smaller, and much more delusional crowd would be rejoicing. Suppose an Obama who was white – identical to Obama in every other way, but white. We would still be rejoicing – although a huge element of the actual rejoicing would be missing.
There are some people sneering at the emotionality. Fuck’em. Seriously. I’m as skeptical as the next person, I too like to be cautious with my admiration and respect (let alone affection), I too am aware that sentimentality is risky for clarity of thought. But I do not think this particular example of mass enthusiasm is irrational. It’s emotional, but it’s not irrational.
It’s funny…I wasn’t really prepared for how emotional it turned out to be. I’m not the only one. I never really allowed myself to imagine what it would be like, because like so many people I was so afraid it wouldn’t happen – I was trying to minimize the disappointment. So when it happened – so abruptly – it was like being knocked down by a wave. What can I tell you? It was no ordinary moment. It just wasn’t, and for so many reasons – not all of which were to do with race.
It’s interesting that it was very little about race until that moment. That aspect was left mostly in the background (including in coded messages from the opposition, of course) during the campaign, but then the moment the election was announced, that aspect zoomed into the foreground and took over for the evening. Good. The campaign was run on the merits, then once it was over, we could go ahead and celebrate the symbolism. Aided by the echoes of King’s mountaintop speech – not that there was much need for aid.
What can I tell you? We don’t get many moments like that. I can’t think of any like it. The sneerers can go write condolence cards to Sarah Palin.
OB,
The sneerers I’ve heard are not inclined to console Sarah Palin. They are those on the left who believe Obama is just a middle-of-the-road Democratic Party hack with unusual charisma, who won’t change anything substantially, just manage the Empire more competently.
I don’t know what to make of this, or how to strike the perfect balance of rationality and exuberance. My own politics are closer to Cynthia McKinney’s or Ralph Nader’s than Obama’s, but I don’t want to believe that all the millions in the USA and around the whole world celebrating with tears and jubilation are really just dupes. I don’t expect Obama to turn America into a European social democracy, but is this not the end of the Bush-Cheney reign of terror?
I have never felt less alienated from my country and the human race than I have in the last 48 hours. Has my brain really turned to mush?
“It’s interesting that it was very little about race until that moment.”
Oh come on – it may not have been about race to all, or even the majority, but the 96% Black American vote and 75% Hispanic American vote does not support your hypothesis that everyone was colorblind.
I’m glad he got in since, as you intimate, the alternative was far worse, but don’t you get the feeling that the US have just voted in a ‘pretty straight guy’?
NB –
No, I don’t expect Obama to change anything substantially either. Why am I not more exercised about that…? Not sure. Maybe because there is more than one way to change things substantially, and I’m more cautious about the whole idea as a result (more than I once was). But also because I don’t think Obama will be as cheerily beholden to corporations as Clinton was, if only because he has another and better way to raise money. I could be wrong of course. I voted for Clinton in ’92 and Nader in ’96 and 2000 (before anyone shouts at me: Washington state is a safe place to do that, it votes Dem).
But I don’t think we’re just dupes. I think there’s a lot of territory between Nader and dupedom.
John, I didn’t offer a hypothesis that everyone was colorblind. I meant that the race itself – what people in the campaign said, and the way the media covered it – was very (perhaps I should have said ‘comparatively’) little about race. Race wasn’t the dominant subject the way it was Tuesday night.
I’m not sure what the pretty straight guy question means (haven’t read Nick’s book).
Seeing as I’m in Australia and nearly cried a few times after victory was announced and spent most of the day getting goosebumps and shivers up my spine, I can imagine the emotion must have been much more intense for Americans.
And I agree empatically, Ophelia, that emotions are not antithetical to reason. There’s an interplay there. Reason used to justify emotion can quite often be unsound or invalid, however I’m sure there are times when the opposite is true. Also there are times when emotions follow the reasoning process: I felt quite emotional AFTER reasoning my way to becoming a vegetarian.
Emotions can be a rich source of enjoyment and we should embrace this moment when for once things didn’t go horribly wrong. I decided I liked Obama at the outset for good reasons, not because of an emotional reaction to him. And I felt intense emotions when he won the election for good reasons too.
Nearly cried? I went through three towels.
:- )
I tend to hold back tears . . . plus I have two little kids and try not to go to pieces in front of them. I’ve got an image in my head now of you crying your way through three towels! And blowing your nose.
What about the towel shortage ? Tsk!
Best wishes of course, heh heh. Now the real work of course begins… and damn there’s enough of it…
Yes that thing about not being prepared for how emotional it would be. . .it’s how I felt too. I was at the local Obama headquarters making phone calls to Wisconsin then Colorado until 6:30 pm Pacific time, telling people who hadn’t voted yet where their polling places were and who to call to get a ride. When I got home I couldn’t believe how fast the states were adding up. And bam, suddenly there it was. And McCain conceded so fast, no petulance, no drawn out bullshit. It was so thrilling and, I stupidly report, unexpected to feel so much relief that Obama was elected, that McCain and Palin were NOT elected, that the Bush-Cheney nightmare is nearly over and we can start cleaning up the mess.
I am rejoicing because we elected a President who reads books, who is both well educated AND smart, who has acted trustworthy and decent so far, who understands the constitution, who has lived outside the U.S., who is well spoken, and who is going to take the job seriously, as fucked up as things are.
Yes for me his being black is a big deal. No such thing as colorblind, it’s a stupid dishonest construct. Mostly it’s his competence and brains. And it is emotional to realize how deeply disenfranchised and angry and sickened I’ve been. And to feel like I might not have to feel that way for awhile. Sneerers can sneer all they want. I won’t be listening.
I have to own up to weeping when he was declared P.E that is probably because I am old enough to remember Dr Kings speech that he gave at a time when blacks were being clubbed and hosed for just trying to vote, even though I was only a child it seemed so obviously wrong. Now I was watching a black man being elected to the most powerfull position on earth it seemed to me that Dr Kings dream had become a reality.
I also think that his election finaly rids the American left of that revolting Clinton couple so even if he acheives nothing more he has spared the world Hilary Clinton as president.
I tend not to get starry-eyed over politicians, thus remaining relatively cool to the whole obamamania that’s been gripping the world. But I did cry. Not so much for Obama himself, more in emphathy with the people to whom it clearly meant something.Even the poor Rev Jackson who was bawling his eyes out.
What has been quite startling (given the pervasiveness of anti-Americanism)is the discovery of the immense goodwill and affection the rest of the world (RoW) seems to have for the good ol’ USA. The day after 9/11 was the only other time I witnessed uncritical sympathy for the USA. Everywhere I look around here in SEA, newpapers, blogs, neighbourhood gossip, there is unalloyed admiration for America and the vindication of its truest values.So many are so genuinely happy for America and Obama. The RoW has a passion for the USA that Russia and China should envy!
Even better, PE Obama’s victory has turned many a critical eye inward towards our own deeply flawed societies where racism and religious supremacy run rampant and there’s a bitter realisation of how far behind we are. About time.
I remember the joy in Britain in 1997 when Tony Blair was elected. Not many years later many of those who were once wildly enthusiastic were denouncing him as a ‘war criminal’. Obama could suffer a similar fate. Here is a relevant article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/david_aaronovitch/article4374704.ece
Well I for one was wildly enthusiastic about Tony Blair untill the day he left office.
Oh come on – it may not have been about race to all, or even the majority, but the 96% Black American vote and 75% Hispanic American vote does not support your hypothesis that everyone was colorblind.
But these figures aren’t particularly significant because hitherto any Democrat – like the tree-trunk that is John Kerry – would be expected to gain around 80% of the black vote and around 60% of the Hispanic vote.
‘A pretty straight guy’???
“Guy”, yes. “Straight”, I guess (but I don’t care). “Pretty”, so they tell me (I happen to be straight).
But, “a”, certainly not: he’s not just any pretty straight guy (I assume that is what is implied).
He’s extraordinary in many ways, & one important way is this: he shows to all 6 billion people at once that it isn’t extraordinary for a non-white to be so very extraordinarily intelligent. This fact is news to more than half of ’em, so yes: what OB says.
mirax,
You should know that the RoW is not happy primarily for Americans, but rather for ourselves. American politics actually impacts the RoW, you know ;)
Although I cried tears of relief about a month ago when “the good party” finally won in Slovenia, I have to admit that, if I had to choose between SD winning in Slovenia or Obama winning in the USA, I would have chosen the latter.
For anyone confused, the ‘pretty straight guy’ comment from John would be a reference to Tony Blair. It’s how he described himself.
Well, Don, than it is clearly wrong in context. Dear Tony was a relief but he was, at the moment of his 1st election even, not to be compared to this.
It seems there was been some misgivings about whether or not Americans can overcome their supposedly deeply held racism. It now appears obvious that a lot of “white folks” – and not just the “liberal elite” – overcame whatever misgiving they might have had about Obama. The best example of this is two counties in Western Indiana (a solidly Republican state that hasn’t gone for a Democrat since 1964): Vigo and Vermillion. Vigo has an African-American population of 6% and Vermillion less than 2%. Both were built on coal mining, railroads, and heavy manufacturing and have been particularly hard hit by the global economy. There’s not a lot of latte sipping in that part of the world. Perhaps the 19% of the population living below the poverty line in those counties is where the real answer lies and that they decided to vote for their own self-interest. Vigo came in with 57% for Obama and Vermillion 52%.
mirax – interesting report; thanks.
I never get starry-eyed over politicians. This is an exception – and, of course, I would maintain that I am not actually starry-eyed, just…as I said about the Denver photo, a little maudlin. A little maudlin sounds better than starry-eyed.
See, the RoW reaction is and always has been one huge reason for my enthusiasm. I have always thought it would be like that.
The shift from the one guy to the other guy is surreal. What an odd country – one minute it elects a Bush, the next minute an Obama. Buncha comedians.
“I went through three towels”
So did the people in pubs in Moneygall.
Why:
Because people say “oh, but he does not descend from the slave trade”
That may be ever so correct.
But in saying this, it must not be forgotten that he does descend from one Irish famine refugee who went to America to escape death.
And in Irish terms the famine (sadly so) is never forgotten.
Hence the tears and cheers in Moneygall.
I read that Obama’s calm nature is derived from his grandmother.
Was it not nice that she voted just before she died.
She had the last word.
I wonder will Barry O’bama ever set foot in Moneygall in the future? It was already muted by certain politicians in the Dail the other day, that he be given an invitation to do so. The Irish love American presidents, and even more so if they have Irish ancestors.
Irish society, in the pas, treated black (inter-racial) people abominably. A lot of them, like myself, ended up in industrial schools. Irish society was so ashamed of them, that it sent them specifically to industrial schools in the West of Ireland. “To hell or Connaught” Out of sight – out of mind – was its motto. When they arrived in Connemara – one newspaper ran with the headlines. “Darkies come to Town.”
I know an inter-racial person who grew up in an industrial school, and when she went knocking on the respective doors of her mother and relatives, she was by them quite simply asked to please not return, as they absolutely did not want to have anything to do with her. She was a big mistake of the past, and they surely wanted no reminders by her virtual presence. What on earth would the neighbours think of this very respectable middle-class family of which a member went romping around with a black foreign medical student.
She perpetually tried to wipe clean the colour of her skin. Why was it always so dirty looking, she always thought.
I also knew a lovely Irish nurse in London who married a black man and they had two beautiful children. The mother and children were completely disowned by her family in Ireland.
I know that the election of Obama will give inter-racial people the confidence in themselves to walk tall into the rest of the future. They, like him, will surely have the audacity to hope for a better future.
As a bit of further background, Blair described himself as a “pretty straight guy” in a TV interview after a scandal came to light about Labour accepting a £1m donation from F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone around the same time that the Government decided to exempt formula 1 from it’s ban on tobacco advertising in sport (the “cash for ash” affair as it was called).