Not shocked-so much as thrilled. (I’ll say it-I’m glad he was the nominee and not Hillary-I don’t believe she would have won-she’s far too unpopular in our nation)
As others have said, Obama is extremely charismatic, intelligent, likable-kind of another JFK. (but without the family connections and-let’s hope!-he’s not a slut). His campaign was well run, and compared to McCain’s (especially PALIN!), well, the less said the better.
Still, I see this as a historic moment-I don’t see how anyone cannot. Say what you want-the first African American president IS a big deal. Just as the first woman president will be.
But let’s face it-we can’t pretend that our country doesn’t have quite a bit of racists around. And that the Secret Service is going to be EXTREMELY busy over the next four years, I would imagine. And let’s not forget the lunatics claiming Obam
And I’m really, REALLY disappointed that I’m working on Tuesday and can’t watch the inauguration, dammit.
Okay, you realize that the population of the US has a MUCH higher proportion of people of African descent than any country in Europe? The European country with the largest population of black people is France, and that’s only 3-4% of the population. According to Wikipedia, anyway. Not to say that race relations are better there or anything (they aren’t) but it’s not a great comparison.
Oh get a grip. Yes, Europe has racial troubles too. But you do realise you’re just engaging in the behaviour that this thread (rightly) mocks Europe for?
There was horrific sexism on display in this campaign, but Germany’s chancellor is a woman, and the United Kingdom elected a woman prime minister almost thirty years ago. And not the wife of another prime minister, either. And, ever heard of Benjamin Disraeli?
Yeah, that’s a very different and very difficult situation. I don’t feel comfortable comparing the US to France with racial issues, though, as the dynamics are not at all alike. Just to give an example, a good friend of mine is French, and she told me that when she first came to the US, she was horrified with the American obsession with race. In France, apparently, talking about race is taboo - discussing it at all is considered a sign of racism. It took her awhile to realize that Americans are just sort of thinking aloud en masse, and that a discussion of what it means to be an ethnic minority in the US doesn’t automatically mean that the discussants are racist.
From my perspective as an American, this is the sort of thing that has led to the extreme alienation of Muslims in French culture, and the riots in the banlieus of Paris a few years ago. But I’m not French and don’t really feel qualified to tell them what they’re doing wrong or right.
I don’t have a strong view one way or another, and I’m not anti-European or anti-French. But when I hear things like this, directly or second hand, I do have a bit of a feeling of “methinks the lady doth protest too much.” Kind of like a reformed raging alcoholic suddenly turning into a scowling teetotaller, you know?
The issue is not astonishment at his being elected even though he’s black. The issue is that he was elected even though he was totally unqualified for the job.
Gotcha, and I certainly wasn’t being critical of what you said – I’ve just had similar conversations with (Continental) Europeans and remember having the reaction I described just now.
I’m sure you have to be a French CITIZEN. However, are those who are Muslim or Arab barred from voting, even if they are citizens? Or any other nationality? (IF they become citizens-my great-grandfather, for example, was born in Poland-but he became a U.S. citizen. Thus, he would have been able to vote here in the US. Is that not the case in France?)
Over two years ago, I heard Obama was considering running for POTUS and said I liked what he had to say in interviews after first hearing him speak back at the DNC in 2004. My SO surprised me with a copy of his book, The Audacity of Hope, for Christmas and I read it during the Christmas break. I became a supporter.
I didn’t really think he had a chance in hell, but still thought he would be a great President.
Then he officially announced he was going to run.
Still didn’t think he had a chance because I just thought Hilary was too strong of a candidate and that Obama would not be able to compete.
I am ashamed to admit that, at that time, I just figured states like Iowa, my home State of Nevada and other “lily white” populations wouldn’t/couldn’t get past the racial bias in any numbers that mattered, other than to make his candidacy a nice footnote in history.
Then came May of 2007. Obama came to speak at the local high school, just about three blocks from my house. I went, expecting it to be me and maybe 50 to 100 people.
The gym was packed, and I would guess less than 5% of the audience was black. They went nuts when he spoke. I mean seriously stamping on the floor, screaming crazy!
I still get chills thinking of that day, and I remember thinking, “Holy crap, this guy could actually pull it off and win!”
So am I shocked? No.
But I am ecstatic that all of my prior assumptions have been proven wrong and that my gut feeling on that day in May 2007 was correct.
When you challege someone guin you need to be sure of what you are challenging.You should go back and carefully read the segment of the statement by Koxinga I quoted identifying the people who can’t vote in France.
How would your father feel being referred to as a non American minority ?
I’m pretty sure it was a joke. Responding to ‘‘Non-French minority.’’ Because if you’re not French by whatever the definition of ‘‘being French’’ is, you can’t vote in France.
I was not surprised that Obama won so much as incredibly relieved and happy. I was enamored of him the first day I learned he existed. This was someone I felt I could relate to very strongly on an ideological and human level. His color was irrelevant, but his experience as a person of color was not. This was a man with an international, multi-cultural background, a man who was the son of a single mother, a man who was black, and a man who loved his grandmother. The way that his life experiences have informed his political philosophy was indeed a factor in my vote for him. The fact that a 25-year-old white girl felt there was finally a candidate representing her concerns and interests does say something about his ability to connect with all kinds of demographics. We were cut from the same cloth. I never had a doubt about this.
I can’t ask myself if I would have voted for the same person if he were white, because he would not have been the same person if he were white, any more than I would be the same person if I were a man. But at the same time I didn’t think too much about his race, only about his perceptions and ideas about race. I thought mainly about the dignity and rationality with which he was able to face very contentious, emotionally-loaded issues.
Oh sure, I wondered from time to time if racism was going to derail his candidacy, and it bothered me what a prevalent issue it seemed to be.
But I didn’t really understand the importance of what had happened until the actual announcement was made that he had been elected President. There was just 10 minutes of silent footage of the whole country celebrating. There was a black woman down on her hands and knees weeping. And I wept with her, because I didn’t even realize what this meant in the context of history until that moment. I’m a somewhat young person, one positively baffled at the idea of enforced segregation, one who can barely comprehend what it meant to have a Civil Rights movement. I grasp it intellectually, but I don’t grasp it viscerally, the way that woman did as she wept. I cried because I never really thought about his blackness on any kind of deep level, I just really liked him and wanted him to be President. And it’s something beautiful when a country that has been so divided and struggling with this issue can be touched by the basic humanity of an individual without regard for their race. It wasn’t just a black woman given hope on that day. It was a complete spectrum of every demographic you could fathom, all united by their hope for a better future.
The fact that I didn’t give something so momentous much consideration is indicative of how far we’ve come as a country. With as much racism as I grew up around, you think it would have pinged my radar a little sooner that a black man was going to be elected President. But it didn’t. And that is shocking in a very good way.
I was not at all shocked. Obama was not only clearly the best man for the best job, but he had obvious momentum behind him. That was the combination behind Clinton in 1992; it was evident – to me, at least – that he was going to beat Bush Sr. months before the election; and so it was with Obama.
In fact, I would have been mildly surprised if Obama had lost, but that would clearly have been from voters being too apathetic to go to the polls, thinking Obama had it in the bag. Conspiracy theories hold no sway with me.