The past few years, especially during my college days, I have found that we have made great strides in becoming less racially-minded. Although there were always some people who refused to treat blacks with respect, and some who refused to treat whites with respect, in general, we had taken massive steps forward in seeing that a person's character was what we saw, not the way they looked. In the past few months, however, and especially the past few days, our nation has seen segregation the likes of which have not been seen since the civil rights movement. It feels as if everything that MLK stood for has vanished from the hearts and minds of the people.
With the election of Barack Obama to the presidency, we have seen that people are still being judged based on the color of their skin, not the content of their character. I've seen so many people who are so thrilled with his election because it has "vindicated" the African-Americans among us. That's ridiculous. It is so sad that people voted for that man because he's black. You don't hear anyone saying how proud they are to have elected a man of such great principle, or such insightful and intelligent ideas, or integrity. You hear them say they're so proud to have elected the first African-American president. That's it.
In predominately black churches across the nation today they rejoiced over the fact that a black man was elected president. No concern for whether he aligns himself with ANY of God's principles. All that matters is that there will be a black family in the White House. In fact one of the preachers actually was preaching about it and saying "there's a new family coming to the White House and they look like us! Hallelujah! They look like us!"
How terribly sad! Isn't that EXACTLY what we've tried NOT to teach our kids. That it's important for someone to look like us??? I thought we were trying to teach our kids that it didn't MATTER that someone looked like us, or looked different from us. I thought we were trying to teach kids that the inside was what mattered, that it was only the content of someone's character that was important. I feel like we have just taken a HUGE step back in eliminating the importance of race, and creating the actual EQUALITY that MLK fought for. He didn't want a black man to get a job because he was black. That wasn't a victory! He wanted him to get a job because he was qualified for it...and regardless of whether he was black or not.
And yet, we have stepped away from what Dr. King taught us. We have gone back to thinking that race is something that should set us apart. How very disappointing. And no one can say that the man was not elected based on race, because besides the overwhelming response of people to the "historic" achievement (which, in a way, it is, because at least we don't have the hatred and distrust of him based on the color of his skin, which is what the civil rights movement was about) but before the election, statistics showed that nearly all blacks were voting for him and when interviewed, they said they believed in McCain's policies when they were attached to Obama. Many many people had no idea what the man stood for. Many people had no idea what he had done, or hadn't done, or promised he would do, or what the implications of those promises would be, or whether they were even do-able. They simply voted for him because he was new, and it would be a "historical achievement"
So while I am proud that we were able to elect a black man as president, I am disappointed that we elected a president because he was black. Just as disappointed as I would be if we elected a man because he was white. Or a woman because she was a woman. It's discouraging for those of us who truely believe that race is the artful work of God, it is a beautiful thing, but does not determine the worth of a person...and we should be judged only by the content of our character.
