I don't think there's anything that I could say that would be much different than the scores of comments I've either read, watched, or heard. Barack Obama's win was amazing. I could use a number of descriptive words to describe what I felt: Relief. Hope. Change. Historical. And now, sadness. As I sat at my desk this morning in front of the AOL homepage, and I read the different accounts of last night's event I saw a comment section filled with pages and pages of hateful racial slander. I'm thick-skinned. My feelings aren't easily hurt. Somehow though, the euphoria of November 4th is slightly diminished by the reality of November 5th. What I read today, hurt me to my core.
I recognize that a lot of the comments are born out of either sour grapes or fear. Fear of change. Fear of some phantom retribution by blacks toward whites for America's history. Fear of the unknown because we fear what we don't know or don't understand. I recognize that Barack Obama is bringing a variety of ethnic cultures along with him to the White House and that probably scares the hell out of a lot of people. But guess what? He's the President-Elect now. Barack Husein Obama is going to be the 44th President of the United States of America. Whether you like it, whether you agree with it, this man is the next leader of one of the most powerful countries on the planet. From his appointments, to his executive decisions, we probably won't agree with everything he does all of the time. We have so much work to do and no time for people to disengage from the process because they harbor hate in their heart. NBC news anchor Brian Williams said something to the effect of "Racism has been like an eyelash in the eye of the history of America."- Nothing could be more annoying or more of a hindrance than an eyelash scraping an eyeball. Except ignorant, uncooperative people who only add to the decay of our society. Before you burn Barack Obama in effigy, give him an opportunity to do his job and figure out what you can do to improve your community and your country.
