Ignorance, Darkness Still

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

--msnbc news article: Obama election spurs race threats, crimes

The offspring of ignorance and darkness are still out there. We knew they were. But yes, there has nonetheless been significant observable and palable social progress. There is a new generation of more enlightened young people, and an older generation now more open-minded and less burdened by prejudice or bigotry. It has been easy to hope for more: an end to dark, ignorant views and behavior. But we knew they were still there.

In the course of this presidential election, there were the recurrent public and private comments about Obama that too often cloaked closet prejudice: "There's just something I don't like and don't trust about him; he's just too arrogant," or "I don't think we know who he really is; I don't think we can trust him." Of course, we understand just what it is that some of those people don't like or trust about him, and why they think he is too uppity. Some appear to feel they know enough about who he is by merely looking at him and listening to other like-minded people--and that's still a problem, isn't it?

But no candidate's life history--his experiences, education, work, activities, writings, views and beliefs--have been more thoroughly, publicly vetted than Barack Obama's. For all who open-mindedly wish to read or hear the facts and understand the values of this man's life, they are readily available. We know exactly who he is and what he stands for. And to be sure, there are many whose principal concerns with Obama are honestly about his politics and policy directions. But for some others, regrettably, he is really just an unequal black man usurping the rightful place of a white man as president of the United States. I suppose we should be relieved that in civil society, at least, most of them are shamed by their feelings, and seek to camouflage them or hide them.

But now the election is over. Now an extraodinarily talented, accomplished, and well-qualified African-American man has been elected president of the United States by a clear majority of Americans. And now the residual, irrepressible anger of the most ignorant and uncivilized racial bigots is expressing itself in uncompromisingly despicable terms. How despicable? The msnbc article goes on to list the ways some of these people have recently expressed their identity and their values.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America...

• Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head."
• Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.
• University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.
• Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported.
• Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.
• A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'
• In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

But before my disappointment paints too despairing a picture, we must remember and celebrate the importance of this historic presidential election and how far we've come as a nation--and the fact that these few cultural miscreants are now merely a statistically insignificant criminal element in a much changed, much better America. As I observed, a notable majority of all Americans voted for Barack Obama on the merits of his candidacy and out of self-interest: he was the best and most qualified candidate. And many others voted against him only because of their political identity or preferences, not their racial identity or preferences. On the whole, it feels much better to be an American.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27738018/