Race and the election

America elected her first black president, and yet I only felt “meh.” Apparently this was a historic election.

Don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t depressed about it, shoegazing like an anchor at the Fox News election center. But I certainly wasn’t crying with the Rev. Jesse Jackson either.

I mean no slight to Rev. Jackson. It’s just that the racial implications of this election meant something completely different to us both, and I’m not sure it’s because he’s black and I’m white. No, I think it’s more generational than racial, and I believe the callousness of my reaction actually goes to show the correct direction race relations is moving.

To most in our generation, race is no longer a defining attribute for someone. James isn’t “James, my black friend” – he’s just “James.” To me then, when Obama was elected, I didn’t feel proud to say that we’ve elected our first black president. Race isn’t a useful attribute to describe what a president is or needs to be. I just felt like we elected the most qualified candidate.

And although I understand that it must be emotional for those people who are living today that grew up when we were forced to distinguish between races, like Rev. Jackson. I believe that we cannot pat ourselves on the back; that to congratulate ourselves for electing a black president is the opposite of what needs to be done.
Because, ideally, if racism were non-existent, then we wouldn’t find any need to acknowledge the fact that we’ve elected a “black president.”

But let me continue further with the election’s race relations “success”: Is it racist to vote for someone solely because of the color of their skin? A June Gallup poll found that 19 percent of black voters and 5 percent of white voters said they were more likely to vote for Obama because of his race. At the same time, 6 percent of white voters and 2 percent of black voters said they were less likely to vote for him because of his race. The majority of voters said race would not affect their vote.
When you vote for a candidate because of his race, you’re implicitly voting against the other candidate because of their skin color.

Jesse Jackson Jr., a congressman from Illinois’ 2nd District, took a few questions from the Chicago Tribune including some about Obama’s soon-to-be vacant senate seat. Currently, Obama is the only African-American senator, and so with him goes that diversity. When Jackson was asked whether or not the governor should take this fact into consideration for the seat’s appointment, Jackson replied that it was an issue that couldn’t be ignored.

I couldn’t believe what I’d read. When did race become an important factor for a senator’s performance? Will a person of a particular race make wiser decisions than the others?

Positions need to be filled based on merit alone. And when merited African-Americans do win those positions, we can’t get in the habit of congratulating ourselves. There are too many refrains of “Yeah, we did it. We conquered racism,” which can simultaneously acknowledge a distinguishable difference among races.