Nearing The Promise

One of my Georgetown buddies, Donald, linked to a New York Times blog post on his Facebook profile. The commentary about Tuesday night's election and the elation that erupted thereafter begins with the following :

"History will record this as the night the souls of black folk, living and dead, wept – and laughed, screamed and danced – releasing 400 years of pent up emotion."

Being a one-time AmStudder and an English major I immediately recognized the reference to W.E.B. Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk (1903), a collection of essays about brown folk living within The Veil. (It's an extremely complicated concept, and this UVA website explains it well, but let's just simplify it and say The Veil is largely a metaphor for racism and the problems surrounding and resulting from it.)

Related to The Veil is the concept of double consciousness and the dilemma it poses for blacks, who struggle with reconciling their identity as "Negroes" with their identity as Americans. From The Souls of Black Folk:

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, — this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face. (Du Bois 4)

Double-consciousness is not unique to black Americans -- other racial and ethnic minorities, women, and members of the GLBT community struggle with their double "selves" -- but here Du Bois spells out his hope: That everyone would be treated the same, despite differences in appearance and identity. Black people could just be, and our race would no longer dictate our opportunities.

That wasn't the case some 40+ years ago, but things have changed since then. And the biggest change of all happened Tuesday night.

Michelle Obama got a lot of flack earlier this year for saying that she was for "the first time in [her] adult lifetime...really proud" of her country due to Barack's early primary successes and supporters who yearned for change. But lots of folks -- white, black, purple and green -- have said the same in the hours following last night's blowout (look at the NYT blog comments) and no one has gotten upset. People are oozing patriotism, and rightfully so. Many suspected that Barack would lose because race would factor into the vote; this was especially true for the black community, for many Democrats of any shade, and likely for a lot of Republican voters, too. But the vote (and exit polls analyzed by CNN) showed that race was barely a factor. We showed the world that we've shed some of ugly vestiges of yesteryear, and I think we've surprised ourselves.

Our idealized American Dream was supposed to be blind to the more noticeable differences among us, but that hasn't always been the case. Obama's victory, Palin's place on the GOP ticket, Hillary's primary fight and even Richardson's brief campaign support Obama's assertion on Tuesday that "America is a place where all things are possible," that "the dream of our founders is alive in our time."

I cried on Tuesday night, but the reason for those tears were bigger than Obama and his victory. If all anyone could see was Obama, then all I could see were papers. Yellowing, fraying documents with fading text. Pieces of paper on which we spend thousands upon thousands dollars a year to maintain; pieces of paper for which men and women have given their lives; pieces of paper that inspire people to believe we can become our "better and truer" selves as we pursue the happiness of our existence. The Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights enshrine the United States in lofty detail. For a long time it's seemed like a work in progress, but this election made me believe that we are finally getting it right. And my heart swells at the thought.

***

For that is the true genius of America - that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. - President Elect Barack Obama

Further reading:
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). The Souls of Black Folk.