An interesting thing

[johnridley]

I don't think I've mentioned this to anyone before, but it came up in conversation this morning regarding the election.

I started watching the Daily Show about a year ago. That was the first time I'd seen or heard of this Barack Obama guy (I just don't get out much, obviously). Of course I saw more of him over the next few months.

The interesting thing is, it wasn't until a few months later, after about the 4th time I'd watched him talk in various venues, and only when the person who was on with him mentioned "african-american" that I blinked and realized "oh, hey, check it out. Barack is black." It hadn't even registered before then.

Having grown up in the area I did, I consider this somewhat of a major personal accomplishment. There was plenty of racism around me when I was growing up. I did have some kind of a head start, though I don't know for sure where it came from. I remember being fairly young, less than 10 for sure, and hearing some of the things my family would say about black people, and I was ashamed of them, and thought to myself, "that's mean and wrong."

I can't remember anyone specifically teaching me that it was wrong, but some of the conversations I had with my dad in his last year or so of life makes me think that he may have put the bug in my ear. He was in the war, he was a foreman at a plant with plenty of black workers, and though, like me, he just kept his mouth shut when members of the family made quite rude statements, I now think he was quietly revolutionary in this regard.

As recently as 15 years ago, I still sometimes felt a little nervous around black people, though even as I felt it, I was a bit upset with myself for feeling it. I've been working on it, and I had known that I'd gotten over the nervousness. This, I guess, is the final stage; for several months of watching this guy, thinking I really liked his style, laughing with him, thinking "Yeah, this is the guy for the job", it never even occurred to me to notice what color he was.

Just a few days ago I was talking to my mom, and she and her friends all agreed, they didn't think white people would REALLY vote for a black man. Maybe we've just had to wait for enough previous generations to die out, and there are still plenty of ignorant savages out there who hate the very idea of a black man in any kind of power (I hope the Secret Service is in top form), but I'm very happy that so many people have been proven wrong, and something like 42% of white people DID vote for a black man for president, and also that so many black people came out and have had their franchise affirmed.

But primarily, and apart from all these skin color non-issues, I think he's the right man for the job.

Comments

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I also often find that I notice race more than I want to. I remember seeing a commercial awhile back, and it showed a bunch of clips of people doing nice things, graduating, spending time with families, nothing very specific, and I was wondering what on earth it was about? It concluded with "we've come a long way", and something about African Americans, and I realized that every person in the commercial had been black. I so was proud in a weird way to realize that I had not noticed!

Anyway -- it's cool to find ourselves not just looking *past* skin color, but not noticing it at all.

[scs-11.livejournal.com]

Well put, John. One of these days I'm going to get around to writing my long essay on why it'll take a century to eliminate most anti-black racism, but you captured the high points in a few paragraphs. Thanks.