President Obama: New Man, Old System… What will this mean for Change?

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I woke up the morning of November 4^th feeling a strange surge of excitement pulse through me, one which I have never felt: an excitement about American electoral politics. Who would have thought that I – with my revolutionary-esque banter and permanent global-migrant status – would be remotely invigorated by the politics of a country which, especially over the last 8 years, has aggravated every jaded bone in my body with its persistently abusive policies both domestically and abroad? And yet there I was in Chicago’s Grant Park in what a friend called “a sea of humanity”: standing in long lines and tight crowds, waiting on my feet for hours, jumping up and down, and cheering alongside the rest of those who were waiting not only to witness history, but to be touched by a single moment.  

 

And when that moment finally came, it was marked by leaps of joy, incredulous laughter, long-overdue tears, hugs from strangers, passionate embraces by loved ones, continuous applause, and phone calls to relatives announcing, “This is what victory sounds like baby!”

 

I haven’t fully absorbed the historic and momentous significance of that moment; the fact that it will soon be on AP History exams, let alone in a flood of newspapers, academic journals, and legal documents across the world. However, I gradually began to the next morning after speaking to a relative, a leftist-leaning academic and self-prescribed cynic, who expressed surprising levels of excitement and jubilation about Barack Obama the man, and what this election may mean for the future, especially potentially for third party politics. His 20+ years dedicated to public service in which he was actively engaged in community organizing, makes me trust him far more than most who have been in public office for much longer. It was striking that a man who was once living in a small apartment eating out of soup cans and whose mother was once on welfare, had broken the cycle of upper-middle class white presidential politics not just as a black man, but as a black man with the middle name Hussein in a post 9/11 world.  Ultimately, his diverse, often dichotomous, life experiences have made him a compilation of the American experience and an embodiment for reconciling historically opposing forces: white vs. black, Anglo vs. African, privileged vs. poor, and perhaps even America vs. the world.  

 

For me, Obama’s greatest source of trust is his background. The fact that he has lived in and has relatives from other countries, that he has met not simply with world leaders, but more importantly that he has had personal interactions with people overseas, makes me less uneasy about the foreign policies he will implement – one I hope will be defined by negotiation and diplomacy, rather than “let’s bomb this place back to the stone-age”; one that will not blindly defend state policies guiding the deaths of millions of children simply by saying, “it was worth it.”

 

Based on the world’s reaction, I’m not the only one who feels that way. Whether it was people joyfully marching through the streets of Kenya and Paris, school children singing in Jakarta,  or Egyptians congratulating American tourists – people around the world reveled in Barack Obama’s victory, embracing him as someone who could potentially alleviate symptoms of the catastrophic plague which the Bush administration so graciously presented us. Even those in Pakistan and Iran – two countries which the US has deeply censured and isolated itself from – are offering their congratulations, saying things like “Mu-Barack ho!” A student of Farsi made me aware of a Persian saying which can be transliterated and translated as follows: “o-ba-ma wa ma-ba-o” or “He’s with us, and we are with him.”  And you know President Barack Obama’s won big when people around the world have pledged their support for him by becoming his ”facebook fans.”

 

It’s all definitely super-exciting. But as the confetti gets cleaned up, the euphoric crowds go home, and the quiet of everyday life sets in, I can’t help but begin to have concerns; about what the words hope and change will come to mean. Although I believe in Obama, his abilities, and his intentions – I’m weary of putting both feet in the pond and trusting the political machine backing him.  My elation has been unfortunately short-lived, tinged with a sense of realism when announcements were made recently that Obama has asked pro-Israel hardliner Rahm Emanuel to serve as his White House Chief of Staff. It’s unfortunate, but considering the long-standing parasitic relationship between the United States and Israel, it’s not unexpected.  

 

Something else worries me: that the election of a black president will make people believe they can go into a state of comatose on the issue of race in this country. The weekend before the election, I attended a conference by the United Congress of Community and Religious Organizations here in Chicago on “The State of Race: Redefining Identity, Building Power, Changing Communities.” Their key-note speaker was the anti-racist activist and author, Tim Wise, whose op-ed piece “white privilege” became a popular pass-around in cyberspace. One of the many things he said which stands out in my memory was: “A black person and a white person can have a black baby. But a black person and a white person cannot have a white baby.” It’s a simple statement, but packs a lot – foreshadowing the unfortunate reality that Obama’s slip-ups as president will most probably be analyzed and censured more harshly. It made me think about my own ingrained notions of race, and the dynamics of a social construct which I unknowingly endorse. As one panelist articulated, “We are dealing with the world the way it is, rather than the way it should be.” Although I was unfortunately unable to film his entire speech, I was able to capture these important five minutes where he discusses Obama and the impact of race in his presidential bid. Perhaps his most memorable quote at the event was: “Hope without truth can be dangerous.”

 

I admit:  I have joined the ranks of Obama’s groupies… daring to hope and latching onto the belief that a new day is on the horizon, that anything’s possible. I never thought I would so publicly support an American politician, let alone a politician in general. However, given his story and the story of the future filled with countless possibilities he so poignantly illustrates for us, hope, trust and belief in better days are impossible feelings to defy. Yet, I tread cautiously into such aspirations, not wanting to fall into dangerous delusions of expecting perfection, not wanting to be unrealistically greedy that I should want more so fast from a man and his supporters whom, in many respects, have given us something so great already… a first step.

 

 

 

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