Like most of you, I couldn't be more ecstatic about last night's outcome. The swell of the crowds and tears last night at Grant Park, with Oprah packed right in there with the rest of them, crying on that white dude's blazer; the balloons and dancing outside the White House; the superbowl-style celebration in big cities--all these testify to the power of our soon-to-be president. Our country did some serious face-saving where the world is concerned; civic activity made an historic peak yesterday, and at long last, we will have an honest-to-goodness orator in the White House. All that pent up "unfeeling" as Lauren Berlant calls it, from 2000 and 2004, finally got replaced by, well, feeling.
But as with everything good, there is also a potentially troubling side to this occasion. This election shows that Americans are not an apathetic lot; that we can be convinced to try to make a difference, yes. But I think we ought to be very careful about hanging too much symbolic value on the election of the first black president, and what that means for equal opportunities for people of all races, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds in this country. The disgust on some of the faces in the crowd at the McCain concession speech last night ought to serve as a chilling reminder that electing Obama does not automatically diminish the race-based hate that still endures in some areas, shoddily shrouded as it has been in discourses of fear and otherness.
What I mean to say is this: electing Barack Obama president is not tantamount to waving a magic wand over inner city schools and having shiny new computers and resources materialize. It does little to eradicate poverty that so closely tracks with racial inequality. Obama is no doubt committed to working for widespread equity, for righting the longstanding and shameful wrongs that persist along racial lines, or to use his language from the now-famous race speech, to eliminate bigoted policies, but as he said last night (referring to a lot of things, not just race relations), we have a long road ahead of us. We must not let his election lull us into a dimwitted complacency about race in this country. Electing Obama is a necessary first step, but it is by no means sufficient.
