tempered reflections
Jan. 21st, 2009 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
novapsycheI wanted to modify my general inaugural post from yesterday.
I'm really not so cynical, not so down on the new administration. I'm just . . . wary of so many people saying that the simple fact of Obama's installation has "completed" or "fulfilled" MLK's dream. It is only a symbol at this point; it's up to us to ascribe it meaning.
I do understand that last night, with all of its pageantry and thesycophantic adoring language of the folks in the media, was a national catharsis. Yes. Once I grasped that, I easily could agree with those who said that Obama's inauguration closed the door, finally, on Reconstruction. That national wound might indeed have healed.
Also, I took a step back and reevaluated. If not for a certain traumatizing event that occurred a couple years ago, I might have been one of the African-American citizens who cried last night, or on Election Night. It was not so long ago that I held views on race pretty similar to those espoused by President Obama. I can see his ascension in that context. When I think of it, I smile.
I think of my two great-aunts and wish that they had lived to see that moment. I remember, as a teenager in their household, hearing one of them call someone on TV 'colored'. I would have called him 'black'. Twenty years prior, he would have been 'negro'. Just so many iterations of this identity as the years have gone by. I wish I could have heard those two women last night. They would have been awestruck. They may be awestruck yet.
I'm really not so cynical, not so down on the new administration. I'm just . . . wary of so many people saying that the simple fact of Obama's installation has "completed" or "fulfilled" MLK's dream. It is only a symbol at this point; it's up to us to ascribe it meaning.
I do understand that last night, with all of its pageantry and the
Also, I took a step back and reevaluated. If not for a certain traumatizing event that occurred a couple years ago, I might have been one of the African-American citizens who cried last night, or on Election Night. It was not so long ago that I held views on race pretty similar to those espoused by President Obama. I can see his ascension in that context. When I think of it, I smile.
I think of my two great-aunts and wish that they had lived to see that moment. I remember, as a teenager in their household, hearing one of them call someone on TV 'colored'. I would have called him 'black'. Twenty years prior, he would have been 'negro'. Just so many iterations of this identity as the years have gone by. I wish I could have heard those two women last night. They would have been awestruck. They may be awestruck yet.