[Apologies this was delayed. It took me a while before I was ready to put pen to metaphorical paper on this subject]
As an American without hyphen I was gratified to see a consensus emerge around Obama as the better candidate, with even one of McCain’s own advisors crossing lines, and for Obama to emerge victorious. Given the state of the economy, I was pleased to see the candidate preferred by 4 out of 5 economists get the most votes.
But as a hyphenated American, after a campaign where I was repeatedly told I wasn’t a real American, I was thrilled to have the candidate more like me win. That’s a poor reason to choose a candidate, I know, but yes, I’m very tickled to think about the fact that the President of the United States will be a son of an immigrant, a man with a funny name.
I don’t vote based on personal appearance, but sure, I noticed that he’s roughly my height, weight and skin color (I’m better looking, but I wont hold that against him) and closer to my generation than that of my parents.
I don’t vote based on biography, but I appreciated that his father came to the USA to study, he grew up in an extended family, he know what it’s like to stay in touch with those you love over a noisy long distance telephone call. I didn’t think it would be possible that the President of the United States might have grown up and been hassled for being an American Born Confused something:
Even those [Illinois state] senators who seemed like natural allies treated Obama with nothing but enmity…dismissed him as cocky, elitist and… “a white man in blackface.” … Most frequently, they ridiculed Obama for his complex ethnicity. You figure out if you’re white or black yet, Barack, or still searching?… [WaPo]
Given the ways that national leaders have condoned and encouraged xenophobia after 9/11, stoking fear and hate for their own political benefit, I am very happy that I will soon have a President who understands personally that this can be dangerous:
The Obama campaign was provided with reports from the Secret Service showing a sharp and disturbing increase in threats to Obama in September and early October, at the same time that many crowds at Palin rallies became more frenzied. Michelle Obama was shaken by the vituperative crowds and the hot rhetoric from the GOP candidates. “Why would they try to make people hate us?” Michelle asked a top campaign aide. [Newswk]
I was deeply embassed and ashamed by the behavior of the GOP this election. They really went out of their way to present themselves as an ethnic political party, the party of real (rural White) Americans. I was thrilled to see the American public reject the politics of division and embrace the candidate who offered a universalistic rather than narrow particularistic appeal.
Obama, on the other hand, built a broad coalition, reaching out to voters across the spectrum, including many long written off by the Democratic party. He has presented himself as the President for all of us, not just his core supporters:
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too. [HuffPo]
What does this mean for desis? Well, not much in some ways. We’re still a small group, and we’re not going to get singled out for ponies and party favors.
But I think, for the first time, we’ve been truly seen and recognized. Obama knows both South Asia and South Asians. We aren’t just some weird American fringe ethnic group to him. He has called himself desi, cooked dal, and travelled in the desh.
His campaign drew upon desis not just for topics to do with South Asia, but for every day campaign issues. The director of my local Obama campaign office was actually a Ugandan Desi ABD whose father was born in Jinja. One of the core staff members in the office was a desi female, one of the Patels from Kentucky.
I am hopeful that under an Obama administration our background will not be seen as a liability or as something intrinsically un-American. And that, to me, is change that we sorely need.
That is my birthright as an American, what all of us are promised as citizens, that we will be part of one nation, indivisible, where all are acknowledged as equal. I think that, on Tuesday, we took a small step in the right direction.
I think that, as always, President Bush spoke for the rest of the country when he summed up his own deep thoughts, and attitude towards assumption of the mantle so poignantly: “What an awesome night for you… Congratulations and go enjoy yourself.” What more can one say, really?
One of the points that is completely lost in the media’s barrage about an “African American†president is the subtle nuance between the traditional African American leader (ie Martin Luther King Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton – all Baptist ministers) and Obama who followed the traditional (“professionalâ€) path (Occidental College, Columbia University & Harvard Law School). I would posit that his background appeals to a wider audience including whites & certainly professional immigrants.
if sasha and malia get a puppy why won’t he give us a pony?
also i agree with the part where you like that he was the child of an immigrant, it gives us all a bit of hope and shows the changing face of America.
I have to agree with you there. I think the fact that he doesn’t wear “being black” on his sleeve as has been necessary for so many of Black leaders in the past took the focus on his race away from him. His path in life and his ability to speak to everyone without needing to state that he was Black really melted the race issue away for a lot of people. He was simply the most qualified person. That he was black ended up being a moot issue (at least to me). And yet I realize the gravity of this happening in the history of my lifetime and acknowledge just how monumental it is.
Good luck to President Obama. He’ll need it. In fact, he’ll need a miracle, because it’s like becoming the CEO of a company which is on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. The country’s economy is HIV+, there are two wars and probably more on the way.
Translation: Please don’t treat me the way we treated your President.
Don’t worry. We’ll treat you worse. There’s something worse than anger (because anger is an emotion – it recognises your existence) – indifference.
M. Nam
“We’ll treat you worse. There’s something worse than anger (because anger is an emotion – it recognises your existence) – indifference”
Please, please be indifferent (and tell all your friends as well) so that Pres. Obama can put forth ALL of his policy initiatives without hassle.
Interesting thoughts Ennis. As inspiring as the American Dream is, I sometimes think that in its simplicity it prefers to paper over the fact that ALL of our stories, whether brown white or black, are a great deal more complicated than that. We need a 3-dimensional American Dream that is not embarrassed by the complex histories that have always been woven into this story.
And for some of “us” – if you have sour grapes, blame it on eight years of total foreign policy and economic failure. I laugh when I hear people talking about the great success of the surge in Iraq (success compared to what exactly???) or blame the subprime crisis on “government intervention” (outdated Milton Friedman tautologies cannot save us now).
Obama has a steep climb ahead but unlike a one-time presidential candidate who drove every business he ran into the ground or the recent VP-candidate who didn’t even know that Africa is a continent, a certain level of obvious intelligence and capability augurs far better prospects this time around.
Did the 5th economist met the same fate as the 5th trident dentist?
I also hope Obama’s election puts an end to the myth of John McCain’s decency. A career where honor is a crutch to fall back on whenever expediency fails to get him what he wants. From Keating Five to campaign reform, from straight talk and high road to hailing the confederate flag, from “agents of intolerance” to embracing Jerry Falwell, from talking about a decent campaign to unleashing Sarah Palin’s incitement of lynch mobs, from all but calling Obama a treasonous Manchurian candidate (“lose an election than lose a war” – well congrats, you succeeded!, “country first”, “who is the real barack obama?”) to try and right that wrong, belatedly and ineffectually, as could be seen from all the booing and heckling in the mob that was standing there. The man is even worse than somebody with no sense of morality: honor is the fig leaf he uses to try and preserve some shred of imagined dignity when all else has failed.
now where will i find a white grandmother?
RE: “Translation: Please don’t treat me the way we treated your President.”
Should he behave in the manner that “your President” behaved, I will be the first to initiate the naming of a B.H.O. sewage plant. And, I second Jay‘s comment. Please, please… be indifferent. It’s far too dangerous for all of us when you “care”.
The Rahmbo appointment doesn’t look that great for the perfect union, I’ve deferred da happiness a bit, till I hear who’s who.
Also looking to see whether the NPT and the pro-Pak cockroaches are gonna come out of the woodwork and start crawling around India-related foreign policy.
If you truly were (indifferent),your keyboard would not have had to suffer so much.Proclamation of your indifference is about as mature as a kid saying'”see I am not talikng to you.I am not.I really wont.”
True indifference = No more MooronicNam = Change already = Yes we did.
Guys, c’mon. Let the point (indifference or not) go.
I am so happy that I lived to see this, something I never thought would happen, a person of color as the US president. I am old enough to remember segregation.
But I still have sinking feelings about the roles of race and class in the election. Would Barack have been considered “electable” if he had darker skin, if his black ancestry came from Southern slave plantations and not Kenya, if he were not raised principally by the white side of his family, if he hadn’t gone to Harvard Law, if he talked more like working class black folk, et al? As someone from a multiracial family, living in a mostly working class black area, I can’t help but wonder.
At any rate, he’s in. And this can only be good for those of us with complex, multiracial +/or ethnic +/or national individual and family identities. Which means a lot of us in this country and this world, and counting…..
Marysia – if he were cut from the cloth that you describe ie “if his black ancestry came from Southern slave plantations and not Kenya…. if he talked more like working class black folk, et al? “ then I strongly believe that he would not be electable. As I stated above, he would not have had the broad appeal.
Of COURSE he wouldn’t win in that case…is that a serious question? Anyway your whole comment proves that some people can never be satisfied. Why not just savor this historical moment for now?
And of course you assume you will be president too! LOL! Get some deodorant, put those ridiculous gods in the trash can and stop eating that curry-smelling shit!
Obama may look/be black but having been raised by white folks, he grew up without that chip on his shoulder. He believes in his mantra, “Yes, we can” because he was never told he couldn’t. His wife too was raised to believe she could compete as an equal. Most black people in this country don’t have that advantage.
We browns, color-wise, aren’t very different from blacks. Luckily, we don’t have the handicap having to grow up under a heritage of slavery and victim-think.
Hopefully, this president will help African Americans get over their negative history and get on with it!
Our culture is different from both white and black American culture with regards family values.
Hopefully having a young HAPPILY married and FAITHFUL president with no previous wives or baby’s mamas will inspire the rest of this nation’s men to follow suit. One Love. One Marriage. One family.
A cartogram
To add to the cartogram, I am now looking forward to 2012, Obama Vs. Jindal.
The white cookie would really crumble then.
We need a 3-dimensional American Dream that is not embarrassed by the complex histories that have always been woven into this story.
most people are stupid, you expect them to grok complexity?
btw, for all of obama being “black” it is notable that he obviously looks more like his mother and maternal grandfather than he looks like his father. the first jewish major of new york was an episcopalian(fiorella la gaurdia’s mother was jewish), the first jew to run for president was an episcopalian (barry goldwater), and the first black president has no ancestors who were slaves in the new world and did not grow up in the lower 48.
Towards the end of his campaign and in his victory speech Obama made it a point to mention gays every time he described American diversity. I hope that he, once and for all, puts an end to the madnees that is Prop 8. Something tells me he can do it.
I hope that he, once and for all, puts an end to the madnees that is Prop 8.
the irony is that the messiah official opposes gay marriage (though he opposed prop 8 too).
24 · Neale said
I wouldn’t be so hopeful. Obama has a long track record of opposing gay marriage (citing his religious conviction), even with wealthy gay friends in his social circle in Chicago. Of course, it is possible that this is Obama making sure that his political path was always clear by never having anything incendiary on his record, but given everything on his plate, I’d doubt that he would initiate any movement on this issue (even if he was truly pro-gay marriage) unless he was in his second term and didn’t have to win a national election again.
Talking of Americans with or without hyphens, I have been wondering why white Americans arent called European-Americans
neale – i do not believe so, at least not in the next four years. even if he wanted to it wouldnt be politically expedient. california is as liberal as it can get. if this has no chance of passing there, not very likely that this issue will get much traction, especially with so much else on the plate. my personal opinions aside, i keep an ear to the ground and this video reflects popular opinion – that gay rights should be protected, but this protection does not imply a recognition of gay marriage.
19 · pj said
What makes African-American history negative? African Americans didn’t make it negative; their oppressors (and their descendants) made it negative, as a result of disrespecting African-American culture, history and people…which was socially, legally and religiously justified.
27 · Samita said
irish-american, italian-americans? i guess the only question is why aren’t there any british-americans? i guess the pilgrims were too pissed at the english.
27 · Samita said
Unless you’re a Klansman, European/white Americans don’t call other European/White Americans “European- or White Americans.” They’re the majority, so they’re just called Americans.
Same thing with black Jamaicans don’t call other black Jamaicans “Black Jamaicans.” They’re just Jamaicans.
huey has some of it, but also, calling someone a “european american” is like calling someone “south asian” in casual conversation. you know, like “hey, anil is finally dating a south asian chick!” you would say “brown” or “desi” or “indian” or “bengali” or whatever. south asian is a clinical term utilized in particular “spaces” (as sepia mutiny meet-ups people generally use the word “indian” as a catchall). so is “european american” or “caucasian.”
for most of american history english, or broadly anglo-saxon, ancestry was normative. that’s why the amish call the non-amish “the english.” notice that the area of the nation where the plural majority identifies their ancestry as “american” maps very closely with regions where scots-irish are dominant. basically, a large subset of people of british isles ancestry go so far back they don’t have any affinity with their over-the-water origins.
Razib, the map of people saying they are of “American” ancestry is used by 538 for their predictive models. From their FAQ:
Any causative models for this re the Scots-Irish map? Or is it just a correlation or coincidence?
29 · Huey said
I don’t mean that African American history is negative but that the effect is negative if it is allowed to hinder progress. Some level of history of the old empires and kingdoms in Africa should be woven into American history and taught in all schools… and by the way, it is even vaguely possible that some far wandering ancestor of Obama’s was a slave though unlikely, since Kenya is far from the coast.
This I have seen is very common in workplaces. The problem is that sometimes ridicule and genuine humor is indistinguishable and this creates complications.
23 · razib said did not grow up in the lower 48.
“lower 48”? He did start college in CA & NYC, then he built up his career in Illinois. I don’t think high school has a very big impact on anyone, people don’t grow up till the end of college anyways. And I betcha, you did not want him to grow up in Wasilla, Alaska!
“I’m very tickled to think about the fact that the President of the United States will be a son of an immigrant, a man with a funny name. “
His last name is not Wilson/Bush/Roosevelt/Adams or Jefferson etc, but among first names this only ranks as “ordinary” as Ulysses, Woodrow, Millard, Rutherford, Cleveland. But you bet now it will become a common name among kids born in the next 792 days.
Rahul, kHoofia – what i am hoping, re. BHO and gay rights, is that his approach of change (albeit up a steep hill) will slowly help chip away the hate and the disrespect in some organic way. Until the rights for gay to marry is a no brainer. In fact, this is the only way. Trying to be upfront and pass laws and suchlike will only infruriate the haters. For example, the protests going on in L.A. against Prop 8 passing, i would never have imagined taking place if Obama had not been elected. Even though its a protest, I consider it part of a process. BHO’s election has woken up the population. People who had not looked under the hood of social issues (but probably voted Yes on 8)are now seeing the struggle on TV. The fallout of the collision between religion and sexuality is beamed into our living rooms. It has to have some effect. Most religious poeple are not fundamental in their beliefs, so , they may ask themselves, why are they voting for something that has roots in fundamentalism?
BHO could appoint a social czar so that such issues are not measured against his personal religious beliefs. And I do believe any of his anti-agy voting record was truly for the sake of politics. I cannot believe such an urbane person truly believes in anything but equality.
A lot of this is hope – that is why I voted for BHO. Oh! and that seeing him incessantly on TV, all trim and bouncy, will get me to the gym more often.
IMO, John McCain got thrown to the wolves by the Republic party so that they would have a fighting chance in 2012 (had Palin foisted on him etc). Would have wanted someone with more experience to lead the country at this time but since Obama is now my president, I hope he has the foresight and courage to appoint people who are controversial but effective. One party controlled government is never good, no matter which party. I wish him the best, for all our sakes.
Bt at the end of the day, folks, he’s still just a politician to me, not a statesman (for now anyway, maybe he will prove me wrong)
It was my understanding that Palin was McCain’s choice. He had wanted Lieberman, but couldn’t get support for that, and the party had wanted Romney, and he refused.
So really, Palin’s choice reflects upon McCain and reveals a lot about him.
McCain never would have picked a Palin type had he won the 2000 nomination. After he lost to Dubya he basically said if “If being unschooled is a virtue…” and you know the rest. He really thought Palin was a twofer bringing him disaffected HRC voters (did not happen) and evangelicals (did happen). The intellectual end of the GOP is going to have to find a new home
you’re nailing an important point. there are too many constituents who see a reflection of their values in bo – something that has been actively encouraged – and expect action on the same. there are two paths forward, appointment of various czars, directors, comptrollers in charge of sub-ministries across the board to carry through these measures, or a prioritization of effort in direction of that which is essential. there will be various degrees of disappointment around. and if people dont have jobs and are losing their houses, it’s going to be hard to find any effort towards same sex legislation. the attitude is echoed in these profound words from Shatner “Be gay. Don’t be gay. That’s up to you George.”
40 · Ennis said
The party may have wanted Romney but I believe it was more a political tactic. The GOP wanted Romney to have the “Ran in 2008” on his CV to prime him for 2012. McCain definitely wanted Lieberman (who is Dead Man Walking in the Senate now, btw) but the strategists within the GOP thought they could capitalize on the HRC vote with Palin on the ticket. But you would have to admit that the Palin selection seemed really rushed and haphazardly put together; not an intelligent move with so much hanging in the balance, which they were aware of. As for Palin, in 2012? Get real. So they could afford to sacrifice her too. The GOP was never really completely comfortable with McCain as he broke with party lines. So, having him take the hit for 2008 to get ready for 2012 was not too much of a loss, I believe.
Over the next 4 years, it will be really interesting to see which Republicans rise to the top. Jindal, Pawlenty, Romney and Cantor look like the next generation. Palin is done for a while. Jindal+Romney for 2012!!!!
Again, my impression was that Palin’s pick came from the McCain camp not the GOP, and that it was a hail mary on his part. Remember, she was selected shortly before, there was no time to vet her. If the party had been pushing her, presumably they would have known a bit more about her.
Details on how she was picked.
i vanted to point that out because the people i know who voted republican in this election felt that bo’s appointment is an invitation to big govt. this is reminiscent of the life and times of pierre trudeau in canada, who enjoyed much such adulation. he was a somewhat woolly headed guy who did a lot that was positive but left the country with huge deficits. it took two changes of government before we finally got it in control, and that too was accompanied with major handwringing about spending cuts and comments about the government throwing out the widows and orphans to the wolves. the thing with big government is that it’s easy to champ one’s teeth around the sow’s teats but very difficult to cut loose. the lips fuse into the flesh of the teat.
How did Proposition 8 become law? The Mormon Church.
The Mormons were the ones who started this and they don’t even live in California. Shame on them for their hateful narrow-mindedness, especially given they were prosecuted in America themselves. In time, the Mormon Church went on to become the most unambiguously vile organizations operating in America today.
They have abused their tax exemption rights. Click on the link to learn more, and to sign the petition to demand these rights be taken away from them.
http://www.mormonsstoleourrights.com/
My understanding is the Prime Minister of Africa pushed for Palin. They would often waive to each other from their doorstep and Palin was going to include his nation in NAFTA, since they already have a huge Neiman Marcus store within their most patrioitc region, south Africa.
It’s comin’.
Given that government and spending have ballooned under the Republicans, I wonder why they cling so fiercely to that belief.