By Maame'yaa
Whenever I am around my parents or their friends I am often posed with the question… “What do you think of the election?” Initially it was exciting to discuss the prospect of an African American man being the President of the United States of America until one summer evening. My parents had a group of friends over for dinner and we began to discuss the election. Only one of our guests voiced an opinion that did no support Barack Obama. She said that she was uneasy about the potential election of Obama because if he “Did not do everything perfect, he would ruin the credibility of any black man to come.” I thought this argument to be a little bit extreme. Although, when I actually sat and thought about it, my parent’s friend may not have been to far off.
There is a very real possibility that if Barack Obama becomes our president, his every move will be recorded with greater detail and criticized at a level that no other president before has had to endure. In this time where history IS happening, how often does our optimism overshadow the possibility that electing a black president could be detrimental to progress for African Americans rather than beneficial?
maforo.
3 comments:
When thinking about this years election, it is important to think about what people are voting for when they vote for Barack Obama. Are they voting for the healthcare reform? Are they voting for the democratic nominee? Or are they simply voting for the African American? Knowing the answer to this question tells us a lot about what people expect from Barack.
If they are simply voting because he is an African American male, I would assume that they don't place much value on the issues. If they are voting for the democratic nominee, I would say that they have not really thought about the issues. They just assume that Baracks term in office will be better than if any republican were in office.
I am not sure if these two groups make up the majority, however, it would be clear that they don't really understand the workings of the political system. Once Barack steps into office, things will not automatically change. The republicans will most likely be very critical of any candidate, just as democrats were and are extremely critical of Bush. However, if Barack was to make any mistakes, those people who did not vote for what Barack stood for on issues, will not understand that people make mistakes and it was not just because of his race that this mistake was made. Therefore, any mistake may shine badly upon the African American race.
At first I felt that this comment was a little too extreme. However, after a little thought I realized that it is actually true! I mean... Any form of authority or leadership position taken by a Black man is evaluated and critiqued on the highest level. And as stated, a Black man in office would be a MAJOR part of our history. By: Farrah Shelly
Any way you look at it, Barack Obama has already made a significant achievement. While I do believe that racists, both discreetly and indiscreetly, will disect every one of Obama's moves in an attempt to justify why they believe that blacks are not qualified to be elected as president of the United States, I feel that it is irrelevant to use race as an element of comparison. Neither success nor failure should be defined using race as a factor, but rather achievements. All of the past presidents of the United States have each had numerous faults in their own term(s), yet none of these presidents' ethnicities were used as an aspect as to why they failed to live up to the public's standards. WHY??? BECAUSE ALL OF THE PAST PRESIDENTS HAVE BEEN WHITE, THEREFORE THERE HAS BEEN NO DIFFERENTIAL CRITERIA UPON WHICH TO JUDGE THEM. Who is to say that any mistake the Barack Obama may make is any greater than any mistake made by a past president just because he is black? After all, Obama's future term(s) as president cannot be any worse than those of President George W. Bush, who is undoubtedly one of the WORST presidents in American history.
Put the "RACE CARD" aside for once, white America, and stop being afraid of CHANGE!
-Justine Burke
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