Black Tuesday
Posted in Politics, Society on January 21st, 2009On Tuesday, November 4, 2008 the Liberals and the vast majority of Blacks – with the tacit help of the Conservatives and Values Voters who stayed home in droves rather than vote for the centrist Sen. John McCain – elected Sen. Barack Obama to the office of President, and on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, America Inaugurated him as the 44th US President.
From November 4th through January 20th the American media and the blogosphere have been abuzz with one single meme – America has elected its first Black President. In an orgy of self-congratulation the media has made sure to focus on Obama’s race, either centering articles on it or injecting references to it in articles about the incoming POTUS. It is difficult to find anything on the election or Obama what doesn’t mention he’s our 1st Black President.
The blogosphere has been similarly awash with such things, but also includes more direct – and often gloating – glorification of our electing an African-American or Black President. They’ve tend to also include claims that Obama’s is the fulfillment of MLK’s Dream, paraphrase and/or parrot Michelle Obama’s “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country,” comment, or crow variations of, “My President Is Black” – often including, “— and now so is yours!”
In response – in what is admittedly at least in part a fit of peevishness and Distopian angst – I’ve personally dubbed January 20, 2009 as Black Tuesday.
All bitterness, angst, and peevishness aside, I have a couple of significant issues with the intense focus on the meme or trope of Barack Obama being America’s first Black or African-American President. I will never deny that Obama’s race made his election historically significant. I don’t think it should be the defining theme of President Obama though. That (mis)defintion would do a great disservice to both Obama and America.