What an amazing event! A black American is the presidential candidate for one of the two major parties. Well its not official yet, but there is no longer any doubt.
If you had read my previous post about the contest, you will know that my preference was for Hillary Clinton to win the nomination and then to pair up with Obama as the vice-presidential candidate. Despite that, I still got shivers to realise that he had actually won the nomination.
No matter how well he had been doing, I hadn't really expected him to win. I didn't believe that the US or the world was ready for the real possibility of a black American president. I still don't believe he can win it, but simply coming this far is amazing in itself. Think about it. 50 years ago, black Americans couldn't even vote. 150 years ago, most black Americans were still slaves. In a few months, we could have a black American president.
Sure, he is half white. We shouldn't forget that. He is not really a black American in the true sense. He is the son of an African immigrant who came to the US long after slavery was abolished. He grew up with all the rights of full citizen. He didn't really experience the pre-civil rights segregation.
Despite all that he still is a black American and he could, just maybe, become the next president of the most powerful country in the world. We are far from a world without racism, but this could be the most powerful symbol yet that most of us have finally learned to make our decisions without taking race into account. We may soon also learn to look beyond religion, sex and sexual orientation. Maybe ...
Photo originally uploaded by transplanted mountaineer.
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