By Baba Galleh Jallow
It will take a long time, if ever, for the full implications of Barack Obama’s election as United States president to sink in. As of now, we all must just try to tease out the more obvious implications of this historic election by asking some questions: Why was Obama elected? What does his election tell us about the current dynamics of U.S. society? How are African Americans and black people in the U.S. in general affected by his election? How do right wing extremist interpret this election?
Clearly, Obama was elected first and foremost because he was a great candidate. He conducted the most effective campaign and was able to mobilize millions of young people to register and vote. He made people believe that they can change their lives and their futures, that they do have power, and that they could change the direction of their country by coming out to vote. And they did.
Obama’s message of change also resonated with the great majority of Americans who have grown sick and tired of Republican policies that have embroiled their country in two costly wars, have led to the deaths of thousands of people around the world – both American and non-American, and which represent a severe drain on the country’s economy. Obama projected the image of a candidate who is determined to lift the United States out of its current quagmires, and who has a good idea of how he will revive the American economy at home and restore American prestige abroad. On the other hand, McCain struck me as someone seriously out of touch with the realities of ordinary Americans. Perhaps oblivious of the fact that people have grown sick and tired of fighting, he persistently kept repeating the refrain about standing up and fighting. Fight, fight, fight, he yelled at almost every rally, often adding the nice-sounding but ultimately meaningless phrase that “we do not run away from history; we make history.” How exactly anyone runs away from history is a mystery to me.
Until a few months ago, many observers believed that America was not yet ready for a black president. That Obama was elected by such great numbers of Americans points not only to the extent to which Americans are determined to banish the Republicans from power, but also the extent to which American society has evolved. Obama’s election is an unequivocal message that racial prejudice, while still very much alive in the American body politic, has started the final march to its grave. The young and growing majority of Americans are clearly not the racial bigots of yesteryear, while Obama’s endorsement by prominent white people during the campaign points to a growing recognition in this country that racial bigotry is a disease that needs to be purged out of the American body politic. This is not to say that racism is dead in this country. It will take a long time yet for that to happen, if it does ever happen. It does mean, however, that racist bigots have become or are becoming a minority in this country.
As a black person living in a predominantly white community in southern California, I made it a point to observe the effects of Obama’s election both on myself, and on the reactions of the people I encountered the day after the elections. From my personal experience, I can safely argue that perceptions of black people in this country have irrevocably shifted for the better. White people tended to look at me with a noticeable degree of interest that wasn’t there a day before the elections. From now on, racist bigots would either have to look away or wrinkle their noses in disgust when they encounter black people in this country. But they can no longer ascribe the type of mediocrity that they were wont to ascribe to black people before November 4, 2008. In general then, Obama’s election have been a considerable status and morale booster for black people in this country. If he makes a great president, so much the better for black people. If, against all expectations, he turns out (God forbid) to be a failure, black people in this country will find themselves slipping back into the bleak doldrums of mediocrity which were, until now, considered by racist bigots to be their rightful place.
For right wing extremist racist bigots, Obama’s election represents the very worst that could have happened to the United States. While the majority of people in the U.S. and around the world celebrate this historic change as the birth of a better, greater America, these bigots are shedding tears of grief and mourning the death of what they consider America’s purity, America’s greatness, America’s self respect in the community of nations. No doubt they are making gloomy predictions about the sad future of this country.
Finally, Obama’s election represents a sign of hope for the world. There are prospects for the ending of the two bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the shutting down of the notorious Guantanamo Bay camp, and the possibility of strategic and intelligent engagement between the U.S. government and the governments of other nations around the world that have been severely alienated by the Bush administration and its Republican war hawks. Ultimately, it all depends on the extent to which Barack Obama proves capable of rising to the great challenges of his new station and of the times in general.
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