And there's been a lot of speculation about what his presidency will mean. For example, a recent poll came out that disclosed that over 70% of Americans thought that a President Obama would be able to fix our financial troubles. Human rights organizations are placing great hopes on a President Obama closing down Guantanamo Bay's detention facilities, and advocates for reproductive rights are anticipating an overturning of Bush-era draconian policies that don't allow for sex education and distribution of contraception to developing nations.
I do hope that these things come to pass. But one prediction that I don't think will happen is the end of racism.
I'm sure most regular readers of this blog will also see the absurdity of believing that the election of Barack Obama to the highest office in this nation does NOT signal an end to racism. Because racism, particularly in its institutional and cultural form, is too big, too widespread, and too amorphous to be ended by as historic a moment as the election of our first openly mixed-race, African American president.
But...
What I do think Obama's presidency offers us is a chance to continue the discussions and dialogues on race that the long primary season and presidential race began. Discussions about sexism vs. racism (or as I like to think of it, the silliness of trying to rank oppressions and the emergence of a recognition that sexism AND racism are inextricably twinned in many ways), the history of African Americans in this country, the history of racial formation and other racial and ethnic minorities in this country, and just a general conversation of our everyday musings and encounters with the big "R" (whether you want to call it race or racism or whether you want to talk about how to live life as an anti-racist person).
So I invite everyone reading this to contribute some possible topics for discussion, and if possible I will try to initiate the dialogue in this space, but of course I also encourage all of you to continue conversations wherever you live. It won't be easy, it will often be uncomfortable, and I don't know what any of us will change others' minds or our own. But the only way to make change happen is to try. And having the conversation or multiple conversations seems to be the best way to start trying.
[NOTE: Amendment 11:41pm EST: I just realized that I didn't count my weeks correctly! Which was confirmed by the comment, below (Thank you Sang-Shil!). Which just goes to show that math skills really aren't my strong suit. Or maybe it shows my desire at revisionist history in terms of wanting that initial giddy feeling to have started earlier than just Nov. 4. Funny what hope will do to you--makes you feel you've been living in the brand new world order much longer than you have...]
