Being there
Being that* I have my finger on the pulse of the United States of New York, I will relate the post- election mood to you Canadians: everyone is ecstatic. As one person described it, it's reverse-9/11. People were cheering and screaming in the streets until well into the night, and today everyone is goofy-happy-on-the-verge-of-tears. Even the cynics, even my temporary visa holding friends. And being that I have an appropriately total cynicism towards the threat-backed Public Relations system that passes for politics in this country, but profound investment in peoples' right to run their own lives, I cannot help but feel excited too. Because one thing that is very different today is how black people feel about their relevance and empowerment as a community, and that matters immeasurably.
*this idiom has mysteriously become not only acceptable but ubiquitous since October of 2008 and I'm going with it
2 comments:
What, did black people not feel heard when they voted in 2004? (kidding)
I think he'll be somewhat apotheosized by the black community. I think there will be some people who put enough faith in him that even a laying on of hands would cure what ails them. The downside to this is that there’s a tendency to start looking away from the messy work of saving themselves for the desire to be saved. I think he knows this, or at least MLK historians have advised him of this. Hence the portions of his speech that said, “our climb will be steep” and “calloused hand by calloused hand” almost reminding people that they have to work for their own salvation.
I am extremely goddamn jealous of anyone who got to be in NYC yesterday.
fivethirtyeight.com's on the road series is full of stories about how one of Obama's great strengths in the campaign was his ability to organize and inspire people to work hard to get him elected. (Not unlike Rove/Bush, I suppose, though they inspired different people.) Hopefully he can continue to inspire that volunteer army to save themselves and their neighbours. That's what his rhetoric seems to have been aimed at. That and money and votes.
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