Looking Forward Toward History

6th February 2008

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With John Edwards dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination, it is now official that history will be made with either the first Black person or first women to win the nomination for president of a major American political party.

Obama and Clinton

Either way it goes, America would have taken a step towards realizing the sentiments that its creeds profess. Yet, Let us not think for a second that this wipes away the many issues of racism, sexism and other social disparities; yet it gives a glimpse into a world, or at least a nation, that could be.

This is a moment (these next weeks or months) that shifts perceptions in the future, as new generations will grow up with something other than just white men representing things that are good, representing accomplishment, and representing power.

Barack is not the first Black to win primaries or caucuses, that distinction belongs to Jesse Jackson who won multiples in both 1984 and ’85; but tonight he will have amassed the most ever delegates for any minority.

Back in January, Hillary Clinton made history as the first female to win a primary or caucus when she took New Hampshire.

Obama Clinton courtesy of News Week

As people love to note as rebuttal to my piece about unintended negative consequences that could arise for Black people from a Black presidency (though I noted such in that piece myself) these type of achievements allow for kids of the same demographics to dream with a feel of reality that may not have quite existed before.

Hopefully though, these factors will not cause us to sleep on the necessity to fight the realities of social disparity. People’s wiliness now to vote for folks of other races and gender on this macro level, does not now change behavior that is intricate and on a personal level; affecting policy, hiring, bank interest rates and the like. Much of racism and sexism is disguised or even not conscious or realized by the perpetrator. These daily manifestations are where the real battle lies.

Also we must realize that this is only a little over half of the voters, the ones in the democratic primary; and there is almost a whole another half of a country that hasn’t been tested on voting for women and minorities. Actually maybe they have as they’ve yet to ever put up such a candidate for serious consideration. That in itself may be telling. And Alan Keyes doesn’t count, because as intelligent as he is, who could take him seriously?

*Note: I started writing this a few days ago and meant to post it before today but had other post to get up; but MSNBC during the 6 o’clock pm hour is reporting that Obama’s people think he might get the necessarily delegates to wrap up the nomination tonight. I seriously doubt that, but if it did happen we’d be seeing history earlier than expected.

But then, things don’t look good for her when he’s already won Georgia over her by 3 to 1.

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1 On February 8th, 2008, Ronny Pierce Jr said:

I agree with that and I was wondering has anybody considered the impact of racism on
universal health care in america. It one thing to get bumped for a job promotion due to
your color but getting bumped from an operation because they want to put a white person
ahead of you in line. I work in healthcare and I have seen first hand black patient recieving
pain medication late due to being labeled a possible drug seeker. Even though here nothing
to support this assumption in the patients chart. Universal healthcare may work in countries wityh less racism but in America scary.

2 On February 10th, 2008, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

Ronny, that’s one problem with Obama’s campaign that I’ve raised; that his fervent supporters don’t want to deal with. The problem being, that he proposes nothing that will address such things; he plays down race to point of simply acknowledging it exist when the subject comes up, and otherwise ignoring it.

He still the best candidate left, but I wouldn’t expect much “change”.

3 On February 11th, 2008, Joe from Boston said:

Look, I’ve tried this before, but I don’t know if blackperspective.net will ever post something by someone who self-identifies as a white guy (should I go undercover??). This is a historic opportunity. There are some who say that Hillary may have better policies to help African Americans. Ok, so let’s think about this. In my basically white family, we have African and Asian Americans by both marriage and adoption. Which is more important for a young black child: 1) they carefully consider the policies of the current president, or 2) they say “he looks like me”? Think about that.

4 On February 11th, 2008, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

White people comment on my blog almost everyday. I have regular white commenters, some who’ve been around for months; so you should jump to conclusions. My blog is set up to where a first post has to be approved from a new email address, and then after that ones post automatically shows up. It’s to prevent spammer and flammers.

Think before you speak and assume.

5 On February 13th, 2008, Ronny Pierce Jr said:

Actually Hillary is supporting a totally universal health care system. As far as addressing
black concerns before reaching the white house would be political suicide. I actually think
that by placing down race he actually beating them at thier own game. Listen to his speeches
you can hear when he is speaking on racism, but he is slick enough to do it in an non accusa
tory way. Every smooth. To re state my position blacks who support Hillary because of universal
health care must look at the whole picture and all factors involved including race.

6 On February 13th, 2008, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

Hillary Clinton’s so called Universal Healthcare plan is a joke to me. First of all it’s Mitt Romney’s plan from Massachusetts point by point; and it’s not working there. Second of all she wants to punish people who can’t afford health care by taxing them. Now she’s gone further and said she’s going to actually garnish wages.

She doesn’t even begin to touch the root issues of the health care problem at all, she just exacerbates them. The health delivery system is the problem. Ridiculous, unwarranted cost is the problem. Damn near and outright criminal profiteering is the problem. I just heard on the news the other night where hospitals knowingly bill the government for hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars of fake Medicare claims, each. And the government just pays it.

This is just more democratic tax and spend policy. The same ol, same ol politics that we need to get away from. The same ol capitulation to corporate interest. That’s who this plan is for, just like Bush’s prescription Medicare plan was.