I feel that so much weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I was getting so anxious and nervous with the election but now that it is over and done – we can finally take a deep breath and let it all sink in. We were a part of history. We helped make this happen and that is something that I haven’t had time to really think about during the election. As a minority, as a race that is considered an “other,” the mere thought of having a black president would have been impossible a couple of years ago. But here we have it, we have elected Barack Obama as our 44th president. I always knew America wasn’t ready for a women president. Even black men could vote before women could (of ANY race) so it made sense to me that the democratic party went that route – but that is not to say that he isn’t intelligent or deserving of this honor, he fought extremely hard for this election and I was definitely happy that he won, but I’m just saying. Can’t say that race or gender didn’t come into play into this election because that was what this election was all about. The historic implications… It was either a black president or a women vice president. Either way, it was historic and a great sign of the time.
Now the bigger questions is… Is it still the “man” holding us down? It used to be the white man… but now that our President-Elect is black – does that change anything? Considering that Congress is still extremely overwhelmingly still old white men, I think not. To me, the “man” will always be the old white men – still voting on laws and making changes to the government.
On a sadder note, Prop 8 in California passed. I am coming back in December and I will try to get out there and get it repealed but it really was a sad day for me and my friends. You don’t need to be active about gay rights to care about it, you just need to be human and have compassion for your fellow human beings. These people are asking for the same rights that heterosexuals have in their state. Is that so wrong? We can give chickens more space in their farms but we can give equal rights to all. It’s pretty shameful. Especially since its on the same night that we can vote a Black* president into office. It’s one step forward, and two steps back I suppose.
* I wasn’t sure if I should capitalize all of the B’s for Black or black. I mean when I write about white people I never do, but if I capitalize one, I should capitalize the other, in all fairness. What do you think? Also, I read an article about the line to vote and someone quoted a voter in saying “It’s either an hour and a half at the front of the line or three hours at the back of the line”… a black democrat. Was it necessary to point out that he was black? And this is why I note that we are still the “other” race because if its not explicitly mentioned, everyone assumes that it is about a white person.
