Let's face it. America is a fucked up country in our views. When I was married, my Finnish wife thought our country was backwards in some things. Like television. Europe has nudity on broadcast TV. Half the things we consider "lewd" or "inappropriate" on TV here are pretty much everyday life there. We 're so anal about shit. No nipples. No nudity. No gay men kissing. Remember when it was a huge deal to show a naked baby in the 70's? Then a naked ass on NYPD Blue came almost 20 years later.
The world has had many black leaders and no one makes a big stink about them. Why has it been so hard to get one elected in the USA until now? Now that we have one, we always seem to throw that in the sentence like it's a handicap or something. "He might do good. At least for a black guy" or "Well...he's rather smart, has a higher IQ than Bush or McCain... but if he fucks up, we'll never elect another black man again!" I've actually heard statements to that effect.
This country is in some deep shit and I don't know why anyone would even want the job of President. But this was the better of the two teams.
The problem is, that in America, the black man is feared. Feared since slavery so you had to enslave him. Now that he's President, no one has a clue what to do about it. Black people joke that it's like the ticket to happy land. Chris Rock said it..."If Obama gets elected on a Tuesday, don't expect niggas to do shit for ya on Wednesday. If you're in an airport, get y'own damn luggage!" We've been a country trying to keep the "African American" down for so long we're clueless as to what to do. "The man is trying to keep us down." Well now the "man" is black. This fear leads to stupid jokes on both parts. A text joke went around the cellphones on the day after election day. "All white people are to report to the cotton fields at 6am!" Then came the pictures of the White House photoshopped to be painted black ( Blackhouse ), or with a watermelon patch in the front green (Whitehouse Watermelons ).
The rest of the world laughs at us and our prejudices. Did you know that? Oddly, they support Obama more than we do. They applaud our belated charge into the 21st Century. What does America call support? Capitalistic pimping and sales of commemorative merchandise. The Obama commemorative jacket, watch, coin, electric train, t-shirt, video, plate, flag, picture. If I were him, I'd be the one selling myself. Shit! You could solve the deficit with those sales alone!!
So I was watching the inauguration from..everywhere. My house, my phone, my mom's house. It was amazing the spirit of Washington DC. It sure wasn't that way when Bush was elected then re-elected. Not a single incident (except for Ted Kennedy) happened. No one started a panic or a mob scene. No one was shot when he got out of the car. America, you can be proud of those Americans present for being so well behaved.
After 9/11 Americans and especially New Yorkers were nicer to each other and more brotherly. After the election a slight wave of "hope" and "help was on the way" came over us. Now, yesterday, once again, we all feel like freed slaves. So many vaginal jokes about saying goodbye to Bush were texted and tweeted on Twitter and Facebook. No man was more vilified in our time than Bush as he left on Marine 1.
I will say this. Little white children were told for decades that in America you can be whatever you want to be. Little black children were told you can be whatever you want to be except President of the United States. Barack gave me a new hope. Not to be President, but to prove that if you have what it takes and the support of the people then you actually can achieve you goals no matter what odds are against you. He proves to me that the ceiling truly is glass and once you smash it iin your own mind, you can smash it in real life.
I know this will be part of my commentary tonight on the Darkhours at 10pm EST exclusively on KMRL Mojoradiolive.
Posted by Darkstar at January 21, 2009 03:45 PM | TrackBack