A president who looks like me
I spent a good portion of yesterday watching the President Elect's train meandering its way down a healthy chunk of the frigid east coast of America, from Philadelphia to Washington DC (a trip that, while I may not have done it as many times as Joe Biden, was a definite routine during a portion of my life). And when I wasn't wringing my hands and ranting on the internet on the state of the nation's interior attitudes, I was watching this amazing thing unfold, and it suddenly dawned on me why this is so inspiring to me, and beautiful, and why it fills me, personally, with such hope.
I can't speak for my fellow Americans as a whole. I can't speak for anyone but me. But here it is.
I have a president who looks like me.
Now, for years, we've heard that phrase associated with government initiatives towards making the government more culturally diverse. We've watched cabinet appointments and judiciary appointments and all kinds of other appointments and elections and such, making special note of how many women, how many Hispanics, how many African Americans, how many other minorities were considered for sundry positions. Because we wanted a government that "looked like America".
And yanno, this was a noble thing. I applaud this effort.
But...
On January 20th, I will have a president who looks like me.
As you probably know, I am not a tall, slender, good-looking middle aged African American male.
I didn't turn into one overnight, either. Just to be clear.
I am not a husband, or a father, or a lot of other things that could be pointed out as specific attributions of the President Elect. There are tons of ways in which the experience and life and accomplishments of the President Elect are completely unlike my own. So that's not what I'm talking about.
But what I do have is an incoming president who reflects, in almost every area, exactly how I feel about this country--both in its history and in his vision for what he would like it to become. And I believe, fervently, that even in areas where we don't agree, I have a president who is not willing to shut me up or shove me in jail or call me names just because I don't.
I know that this presidency is a huge deal for my African American fellow citizens. I know that, in some ways, I can never understand just what exactly this means to them, and how this inspires them. But I can assure you--this is huge for me, too. Because just as there have been Americans of color who have been disenfranchised and silenced in this country, for so, so abominably long, there have been many of us who have felt that there was no one in the White House who spoke for us, either.
Nay, not just that they didn't speak for us, but didn't even hear us, or recognise us, or consider us anything but rank traitors. There are those of us who have had our country taken away from us, outright, because of our attitudes of dissent, or our religious beliefs (or lack of them), or because we were something--ANYTHING--that the Old White Gents inside the Beltway considered, for whatever reason, suspect.
I would venture to say that there are whole throngs of us, whole communities, who have felt that same way.
And so, while we cannot share this feeling in the way an African American can, it is not a feeling that is completely unknown to some of the rest of us, either. It isn't something we don't feel, albeit for completely different reasons.
And that's a good thing. Because what that means is that it goes beyond race, it goes beyond culture, it goes beyond what things "look like" on the surface. It isn't a token gesture, or an upper level affirmative action move. While the surface is in all ways important, the fact that this goes even deeper than that, that under this administration we are actually going to be able to participate in citizenship in this country just as we are, no matter who or what we are, is huge.
HUGE.
It is the very thing that will unite this country, where it could have been so easy to divide us. It is the very thing that allows us empathy, and the compassion that follows. It is the very thing that allows us to understand one another better, and pull together, because we get it.
It gets beneath those noble surfaces, and joins us at the heart.
I don't think that there is anyone else on the planet who could have done this--at least, not as skillfully or as elegantly as Obama does.
So while I am overjoyed that I will have an African American president, and understand the pride and the thrill that the members of the African American community feel at that prospect, I am also overjoyed that, while I am not a tall, slender, middle aged Black man who is a father and a husband and so much more incredibly intelligent and accomplished than I am, I am about to watch the swearing in of a president who looks like me--and I feel that pride and thrill as well.
I can't speak for my fellow Americans as a whole. I can't speak for anyone but me. But here it is.
I have a president who looks like me.
Now, for years, we've heard that phrase associated with government initiatives towards making the government more culturally diverse. We've watched cabinet appointments and judiciary appointments and all kinds of other appointments and elections and such, making special note of how many women, how many Hispanics, how many African Americans, how many other minorities were considered for sundry positions. Because we wanted a government that "looked like America".
And yanno, this was a noble thing. I applaud this effort.
But...
On January 20th, I will have a president who looks like me.
As you probably know, I am not a tall, slender, good-looking middle aged African American male.
I didn't turn into one overnight, either. Just to be clear.
I am not a husband, or a father, or a lot of other things that could be pointed out as specific attributions of the President Elect. There are tons of ways in which the experience and life and accomplishments of the President Elect are completely unlike my own. So that's not what I'm talking about.
But what I do have is an incoming president who reflects, in almost every area, exactly how I feel about this country--both in its history and in his vision for what he would like it to become. And I believe, fervently, that even in areas where we don't agree, I have a president who is not willing to shut me up or shove me in jail or call me names just because I don't.
I know that this presidency is a huge deal for my African American fellow citizens. I know that, in some ways, I can never understand just what exactly this means to them, and how this inspires them. But I can assure you--this is huge for me, too. Because just as there have been Americans of color who have been disenfranchised and silenced in this country, for so, so abominably long, there have been many of us who have felt that there was no one in the White House who spoke for us, either.
Nay, not just that they didn't speak for us, but didn't even hear us, or recognise us, or consider us anything but rank traitors. There are those of us who have had our country taken away from us, outright, because of our attitudes of dissent, or our religious beliefs (or lack of them), or because we were something--ANYTHING--that the Old White Gents inside the Beltway considered, for whatever reason, suspect.
I would venture to say that there are whole throngs of us, whole communities, who have felt that same way.
And so, while we cannot share this feeling in the way an African American can, it is not a feeling that is completely unknown to some of the rest of us, either. It isn't something we don't feel, albeit for completely different reasons.
And that's a good thing. Because what that means is that it goes beyond race, it goes beyond culture, it goes beyond what things "look like" on the surface. It isn't a token gesture, or an upper level affirmative action move. While the surface is in all ways important, the fact that this goes even deeper than that, that under this administration we are actually going to be able to participate in citizenship in this country just as we are, no matter who or what we are, is huge.
HUGE.
It is the very thing that will unite this country, where it could have been so easy to divide us. It is the very thing that allows us empathy, and the compassion that follows. It is the very thing that allows us to understand one another better, and pull together, because we get it.
It gets beneath those noble surfaces, and joins us at the heart.
I don't think that there is anyone else on the planet who could have done this--at least, not as skillfully or as elegantly as Obama does.
So while I am overjoyed that I will have an African American president, and understand the pride and the thrill that the members of the African American community feel at that prospect, I am also overjoyed that, while I am not a tall, slender, middle aged Black man who is a father and a husband and so much more incredibly intelligent and accomplished than I am, I am about to watch the swearing in of a president who looks like me--and I feel that pride and thrill as well.