HOPE!

“The biggest race problem we had to start was not with the white voters,” Mr. Axelrod said, “but with African-American voters, a deep sense of skepticism that this might happen.”

Since last night I've considered writing about several different themes related to the election. As I was reading the NY Times this morning I came across this quote and think it offers a great place to start.

Like people who have had their hearts broken by a lover, it has been hard for many Black people to believe in the promise of Barack Obama's candidacy. We didn't want to let ourselves believe, even if all signs pointed in the right direction, that this thing could actually work out. I can not speak for all Black people, but I will say this about myself: only after Iowa did I even concede that it was possible. Even after finally putting down the Clinton machine, it was still hard to imagine it really happening.

For me, watching President-elect Obama give his acceptance speech last night was profoundly surreal. It was a moment not grounded in the present, but instead like a glimpse into the future. As a Black man I am proud of what my brother has done. He ran a better campaign by all measures than anyone in history. And he is, undoubtedly, the right man for the right time. But more than anything, I'm proud of us, as Americans. We proved something to ourselves yesterday. Instead, of punching our way through the darkness of fear and ignorance, we have decided to not give up hope on being our best selves, and finding our way in the world in that mode. We restored ourselves yesterday; gave ourselves yet another shot at getting the American Dream right. I'm more proud than I've ever been to be from this place. And I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I needed help getting here. I'd be lying if I said that, after electing Bush in the first place, I wasn't ready to write us off as a hopelessly lost if we made the same mistake again. I was not in a place of fighting ceaselessly to make sure that we didn't do it again. Michelle Obama hit it on the head about a half year ago when she said that Black people were scared to believe it was possible, and that's why they weren't supporting her husband like htey should. She was right. And I know that because I got angry at first when she said it. But it was the call to action that I needed, maybe many of us needed. In a way, I feel that I was late to my own party. But that's ok because that's what truly great leaders do. They make people believe in themselves in a way that they never have before.

I feel like this election has been our Civil Rights Movement. A defining moment of struggle (without the same tremendous level of sacrifice). We canvassed and prayed and hoped and donated, and now have achieved something that seemed hardly possible to most even as recent as a year ago. And like the fight against racism going all the way back through previous generations, it has been a fight fought by people off all types working hand in hand. When I take a step back and look at the history, I almost wonder why I didn't believe from the very beginning. I think now that we've had this victory, hope is something that will stay inside me.

Obama believed from the beginning that it could happen, even if he wasn't sure it would. That's his greatness, and why the American people love him before he's even "done anything". He's already done something no one else has been able to do for what feels like a long time. He described himself once as a conduit, saying that his presence allows people who wouldn't normally to come together come together. He hasn't just been galvanizing people in his camp. He's allowing people to dream, cross lines... feel a part of a whole. It speaks to our purest social instincts as human beings. It's something that the entire world hears and needs. It is not him who will make a better future, it is us. That's the hope.