I remember staying up past my bedtime Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. As I hugged a pillow to my chest, I followed along as each state on the map shown on the television turned red or blue.
Then, I watched as Barack Obama was declared the winner of the 2008 presidential election.
At 10 years old, I had no idea what “Democrat” or “Republican” meant. I simply processed the facts laid out in front of me by the television broadcaster: for the first time in United States history, a black man had been elected president.
Fast-forward to December 2015. As part of a community project called “Facing Racism,” I interviewed a black woman about her life and experiences with racism. Almost a year later, one thing she said still sticks out in my brain. As we discussed the upcoming primaries, she said, “I never realized how racist this country was until Barack Obama became president.”
Her observation, a mixture of crushed idealism and weary realization, is sobering.
Obama rode to victory on a campaign that seemed immune to systemic racism. Jim Crow who?
Humans crave simplicity. It only seemed rational that once we elected a president who wasn’t white, racism would be buried deep in the ground. Instead, it seemed that bigotry in America was a sleeping dragon, woken from its slumber by Obama’s election.
In the aftermath of his election, some Republicans sought to delegitimize Obama. Some networks entertained their dark-corner-of-the-internet-conspiracy-blog claims, and some talk radio hosts were consumed by sheer horror at the Obama presidency.
First, Obama’s birth certificate was fake. Then, he was a Kenyan. Next, he became a Muslim. All of this defamatory rhetoric festered until, finally, Obama was some caricature that fit the narrative the Republicans sought to create: Obama was the absolute worst thing to happen to America, the sign of the Rapture, the four horsemen of the apocalypse in a single man, etc.
And the sad thing is thousands and thousands of people bought into this.
As we stand on the precipice of the 2016 presidential election, almost 100 years since women were given the right to vote, I can’t help but anticipate a similar backlash if Hillary Clinton is elected.
Granted, she’s nowhere near perfect, but many have already shown that they’re not capable of criticizing her without using gendered insults. She’s been given the nickname “Shrillary” and been targeted for “shouting” during campaign rallies. She’s already facing a mountain of sexist rhetoric and the election is still three months away.
We live in an age far removed from the bra-burning days of yesteryear.
Women, breaking glass ceiling after glass ceiling, are, for the most part, able to pursue their dreams. To many young girls today, feminism is the equivalent of Grandma’s china set in the cabinet: a neat little antique to glance at for a few seconds but hardly practical or functional in today’s world. Never mind that the wage gap is still alive and thriving.
It would seem that true gender equality will have been reached when a woman finally breaks the ultimate glass ceiling, just as Obama did in 2008 for people of color.
However, we can’t buy into this frame of thought. It’s tempting, but, as Obama’s election proves, winning the presidency is not a victory lap for racial or gender equality. Instead, it’s simply a milestone, with the finish line still off in the distance.
acgroove@indiana.edu
