Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Okay, so now it's a week later. After the thrill of victory that saw Barack Obama capture the Presidency, and not long after the cheers of those who helped him get into the White House had died down the morning after, there was this deafening and eerie silence that settled across America.
We're looking at 250 years after slavery, and somewhere in the area of over 100 years of Jim Crow laws, and a legacy of racial terror (lynching, segregation, hate mobs, etc.) America has elected a black president. I'm among many who thought that we wouldn't live long enough to see this day.
Obama’s election reflects the fact that this country has made great progress in the area of race relations and is likely to propel it to even greater heights. I'm optimistic enough to believe this. But as we all know, progress is never a straight line. There is always the danger of a backlash. Some of the backlash has been silent.
And the sad truth is, we know that backlash started well before the campaign was over. Let's be upfront about it y'all. Racial rage, clearly driven by fear of a brotha in the White House, began to break out around the country several weeks ago. Folks knew there was something big about to happen and they were beginning to act out because of that big something.
Remember the effigies of Obama that some idiots hanged with nooses on university campuses? And lets not forget that mob of McCain and Palin supporters caught on video shouting "Kill him" at a campaign rally. Or the shameless Republican terror tactics that included e-mails warning Repub members and supporters that carloads of Obama supporters were going to be coming from the inner city to cast their votes. And it didn't stop there.
The real is a healthy majority of Americans did vote to send Obama to the Oval Office. But, clearly, there are people, perhaps millions of them who are deeply upset over his victory for reasons that are fundamentally racial. And their anger is likely to intensify as the economy, especially unemployment, continues to worsen.
Right now though, there's that silence. It's loud and it is deafening. Akin to when a person goes into shock. Or as someone else told me, when one mourns.
Even as we embark on a new national adventure, the signs are, well pretty distressful. It may be that the hatemongers are wrong, that Americans’ better angels will prevail and the changes that President Obama has promised are already sweeping this country will not result in a growing rage on the right.
But experience tells us that while we hope for the best, we also must unfortunately prepare for the worst. And that worst can be a dangerous, racially motivated backlash of hate. You can't hear it now, but it is being whispered. In the dark, hell even in the light. Right beside you and beside me. In that cubicle to the left of you. Or that car to your right. Maybe even closer than we may think.
