What’s Next

I think it’s unlikely that the media will avoid its tendency toward hypervigilince any more now than it was able to before the election was over.  It’s a real shame too, because I think, at least for the time being, that they are focusing on entirely the wrong thing.

Yes, Obama will be America’s first black President.  Also yes, that is an historic achievement, and that’s as much as is needed.  Media, I beg you, please don’t let that be what you spend your time focusing on, because in doing that, you will work against its significance.  To spend any more time than is necessary making an undue display of the fact that he is a black president is, like it or not, racist.  To give additional consideration, whether positive or negative in nature, to a particular person, based on nothing more than their race is definitively racist, and he deserves more than to have any of his future accomplishments overshadowed by his significance in the history of American race relations.  We all know how and why this election had an extra bit of historical significance, now let’s let him be a good president, not just the first black president.

I’m worried that assigning too much attention to that fact will put unnecessary pressure and strain on a man who is already in a difficult position given the state of our country.  He has a hard task ahead of him, let’s not make it more stressful by reminding him that if he fucks things up it will never be forgotten.  Because let’s face it, the minute that the results were in, Barack Obama ensured that American children will know his name for as long as America continues to exist, more so than most other presidents.  His name will have a special place in history books.  All of the heroes of civil rights and racial equality have garnered history’s attention with far more modest achievements than his.  He has done more than any of the others.  It’s a tall order which I feel he is entirely capable of fulfilling, but I don’t think he needs a constant reminder of just what is at stake.

Also, let’s not forget that he has been nothing if not vocal about the need for all Americans to look for what makes us similar, not what makes us different.  So let’s not focus any more than we need to on how he is different from every president that came before him, except of course for in his ability as president.  Let’s allow a chance for history to remember him as the great president that many of us believe he will be, not just the first black president.  He is capable and intelligent in a way that puts him in a class that isn’t occupied by many human beings, and those qualities have nothing to do with the color of his skin.  Let’s let history remember him fairly for his accomplishments as a capable intelligent president, not just the first black president.

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