In my lifetime
This may be less coherent than I would like--I was too wound up to sleep well last night.
In June 1964, when I was about 10 weeks old, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, "the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction." A year later, the nation adopted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that prohibited any voting regulations or requiremens (such as a poll tax or literacy test) that could, in effect, be discriminatory.
It some times gives me pause to think that I was born into a country that did not have these protections. Or that I was four years old when, in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy were assassinated.
As a white and Jewish child growing up in overwhelmingly white suburbs on the outskirts of one of the northeast's most segregated cities, race was something of which I was scarcely aware growing up. This began to change somewhat when the Boston school desegregation busing policy, meant to move children around the city to integrate the city's schools (which were segregated because the city's neighborhoods were so segregated) sparked riots, assaults, and all kinds of ugliness. Boston, which had been a leader in the movement to abolish slavery in the mid-nineteenth century, was now making the national news with disgusting acts played out in the city's streets, day after day. You can clink on the link above to read the details--but suffice it to day that the leaders of many of the city's most entrenched white neighborhoods did not comport themselves well. Rocks were thrown at school buses, among many other acts of mayhem.
The most enduring image of this period, is this one, by a Boston Herald American photographer. He happened to come upon this 1976 scene, right next to Boston City Hall (on R) of architect Ted Landsman being assaulted by some teens who'd come downtown to protest the busing policy. He wasn't actually hit by the flag, merely assaulted by fists.
The atmosphere in the city gradually improved, and while we now have our first African-American governor, the only black member of the State Senate was recently arrested for taking bribes and dropped out of the race for reelection. So Boston and Massachusetts still have few African Americans in positions of political power and many in economic distress and at risk of being victimized by violent crime. With a few exceptional neighborhoods, Boston and its suburbs are effectively segregated by geography. My kids have black children in their public school classes only because those highly motivated children travel by bus from the city and back every day.
So I live in a fairly white bubble. For most of my professional life in worked in an academic field (Jewish education) that, by definition, included few people of color. I can't say that some of my best friends are African-American, though we have friends and neighbors who are Indian, Chinese, Korean and from many other parts of the world.
So why does Obama's election mean so much to me? Because (and here I go sounding like a politician), I believe in this country. My four grandparents were born in Russia and Poland and came to the United States for economic opportunity and the chance to live without pogroms and antisemitic discrimination. My parents, my children, my brother and I were born in the Boston area. My immigrant background (my interest in which led directly to my academic pursuits) and my studes of American history and culture created and then reinforced my belief that what started here in Boston, in Concord, and a few blocks from where I stand at my kitchen counter and write this, has led to what happened last night--the real delivery of the promise of equality and liberty--values that were still new ideas in 1776. The agonies of the civil war and the civil rights movement pushed us along--but each step was taken kicking and screaming.
I love America and I believe that last night's election will take us a giant leap forward, toward what were were meant to be. It was a decisive victory, carried out in a civilized manner, with no questions hanging over the outcome.
In line to vote in a southern state last night (I can't remember the details or where I read this), an elderly black woman was asked, "How long have you been waiting?"
Her answer: "About 200 years."
I support Obama for lots of reasons. But the fact that my country elected him makes me enormously proud and excited about the future my children will see.
In June 1964, when I was about 10 weeks old, President Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, "the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction." A year later, the nation adopted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that prohibited any voting regulations or requiremens (such as a poll tax or literacy test) that could, in effect, be discriminatory.
It some times gives me pause to think that I was born into a country that did not have these protections. Or that I was four years old when, in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert Kennedy were assassinated.
As a white and Jewish child growing up in overwhelmingly white suburbs on the outskirts of one of the northeast's most segregated cities, race was something of which I was scarcely aware growing up. This began to change somewhat when the Boston school desegregation busing policy, meant to move children around the city to integrate the city's schools (which were segregated because the city's neighborhoods were so segregated) sparked riots, assaults, and all kinds of ugliness. Boston, which had been a leader in the movement to abolish slavery in the mid-nineteenth century, was now making the national news with disgusting acts played out in the city's streets, day after day. You can clink on the link above to read the details--but suffice it to day that the leaders of many of the city's most entrenched white neighborhoods did not comport themselves well. Rocks were thrown at school buses, among many other acts of mayhem.
The most enduring image of this period, is this one, by a Boston Herald American photographer. He happened to come upon this 1976 scene, right next to Boston City Hall (on R) of architect Ted Landsman being assaulted by some teens who'd come downtown to protest the busing policy. He wasn't actually hit by the flag, merely assaulted by fists.
The atmosphere in the city gradually improved, and while we now have our first African-American governor, the only black member of the State Senate was recently arrested for taking bribes and dropped out of the race for reelection. So Boston and Massachusetts still have few African Americans in positions of political power and many in economic distress and at risk of being victimized by violent crime. With a few exceptional neighborhoods, Boston and its suburbs are effectively segregated by geography. My kids have black children in their public school classes only because those highly motivated children travel by bus from the city and back every day.
So I live in a fairly white bubble. For most of my professional life in worked in an academic field (Jewish education) that, by definition, included few people of color. I can't say that some of my best friends are African-American, though we have friends and neighbors who are Indian, Chinese, Korean and from many other parts of the world.
So why does Obama's election mean so much to me? Because (and here I go sounding like a politician), I believe in this country. My four grandparents were born in Russia and Poland and came to the United States for economic opportunity and the chance to live without pogroms and antisemitic discrimination. My parents, my children, my brother and I were born in the Boston area. My immigrant background (my interest in which led directly to my academic pursuits) and my studes of American history and culture created and then reinforced my belief that what started here in Boston, in Concord, and a few blocks from where I stand at my kitchen counter and write this, has led to what happened last night--the real delivery of the promise of equality and liberty--values that were still new ideas in 1776. The agonies of the civil war and the civil rights movement pushed us along--but each step was taken kicking and screaming.
I love America and I believe that last night's election will take us a giant leap forward, toward what were were meant to be. It was a decisive victory, carried out in a civilized manner, with no questions hanging over the outcome.
In line to vote in a southern state last night (I can't remember the details or where I read this), an elderly black woman was asked, "How long have you been waiting?"
Her answer: "About 200 years."
I support Obama for lots of reasons. But the fact that my country elected him makes me enormously proud and excited about the future my children will see.