America, Obama, and What truly is at stake in 2010

The day I was born fifty one years ago, America was in a much different place. The last President born in the 19th century Dwight David Eisenhower was in the White House. The Civil Rights movement that would produce iconic names like Martin Luther King, H. Rap Brown, Medgar Evers, and el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz was entering a new and more aggressive phase. Five years earlier the Supreme Court delivered its landmark Brown V Topeka ruling effectively dismantling Jim Crow, although it would take marches, deaths, and near civil war to garner federal enforcement. Four earlier a fourteen year old young man from Chicago was brutally murdered in Money Mississippi purportedly for whistling at a white woman. In 1959 while many well known Hollywood actors, were gay, but none “came out”. In 1959 it would be another three years before a biracial child born of a white woman and a Kenyan man would be born in America’s newest state Hawaii. In 1959 the face of America – or at least the face of those in the ruling class was white. The few black faces of note were entertainers or athletes. Yet in 1959 most of the superstars in the three major American team sports were still white, national powers like Alabama, were still several years from recruiting black students. And most importantly on line P5 of the 1960 census Americans were asked: “Is this person - White, Negro, American Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Part Hawaiian, Aleut, Eskimo, (etc.)” notable by its absence were people of Hispanic origin.

As I write this blog, interracial, and gay couples interact with a growing sense of confidence, a man of color is the President of the United States, the most dynamic athletes in baseball “America’s pastime” have the names Pujols, and Rodriguez, the NBA is dominated by African Americans. In short America has become a true melting pot with people of all races, and genders representing America in every field imaginable. I am sure that many of those living in 1959 would vision the America of 2010 through an apocalyptic prism. Yet this where we are, and this is who we are. In 2010, part of the narrative of Barack Obama is an acknowledgement, and acceptance of this new America, an America of tolerance, and appreciation of other cultures. In 1959 the mosaic of America was primary a fusion of two old world cultures, the protestants of England that founded this country, and the catholic immigrants, although the presence and genius of the African American community forced America to embrace the genius of Langston Hughes, W.E.B.Dubois, Jackie Robinson, Duke Ellington, and Paul Robeson. Now in 2010 that mosaic has expanded, into a variety of shades, and hues, to the effect that in the former French creole territory that is now the state of Louisiana, there is a Catholic Governor with Hindu roots, and a Vietnamese congressman. This is who we are, and this what we are.

With all due respect to Barack Obama and his campaign for change which I was a part of, President Obama was a reflection of the change underfoot in America, but not its origin. Those winds of change started over a hundred years ago manifested by the Pan African movement, the growth of labor unions, woman’s suffrage movements and other change oriented organizations. Change also came in the form of demographics. That forging of the new American mosaic was sometimes organic, sometimes ugly, sometimes forced. Greed and poverty and hopes for opportunity were the underpinnings of the Hispanic growth. Wars and foreign misadventures led to the migration of Muslims, Bosnians, and Vietnamese. Asians came to America seeking opportunities and to escape poverty and/or oppression at home. Social change was also produced by sheer force of will as marches, assassinations riots, were the building blocks for change for African Americans, as the Civil Rights Movement became the template for other movements like native America, woman’s, and gay rights. Movies like Guess Who’s coming to Dinner forced America to look at an old and incendiary issue like interracial relationships.

In every case the forces of change brought about strong resistance, as fears, ignorance, and group self loathing often gave rise to violent push backs. Thus bullets felled Martin, and Malcolm, but also social “outliers” like Harvey Milk and John Lennon. Interracial couples would wake up to cross burnings. Abortion doctors were often targets, and unfortunate ones like Dr. George Tiller were brutally murdered. In 1998 Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thang illuminated the ethnic tensions that existed in Brooklyn between Koreans, Italians, and African American as a result of that boroughs changing landscape. In New Orleans, Vietnamese immigrants were shunned by whites and blacks, until the horrors of Katrina forced the Vietnamese to stand and be counted. Change is not pretty, but change is enviable. The question has always been how do we as a culture choose to deal with it, in 2010 it appears the battle lines are drawn, but obfuscated by right wing political fear mongering, so what looks like political choices, is in effect a spiritual war between those embrace the America of 2010, and those who seek to return to 1959.

Where does this leave President Barack Obama as he looks toward his second term? Mr. Obama has to understand that while he was swept into office by an emphatic gust of change, many of his initiatives have been met with strong and savage resistance, undermining his narrative, and his prospects for re-election. Mr. Obama must continue to work on a policy level to energize his base, keeping his promise to withdraw from Afghanistan in July of 2011, continue to push for a strong climate bill, action on immigration, work for energy independence, and seek venture capital to fuel a new green economy all which will have a positive effect on the most important domestic issue – jobs.

Yet Mr. Obama must continue a counter narrative which speaks to the higher angels of this country. In 1960 John F. Kennedy challenged America by saying “ask not what my country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” In 2010 President Obama must challenge America and ask “what kind of country are you willing to be” are you willing to go hard to assure that we remain a tolerant, open minded society, capable of embracing those from different cultures, with different orientations, and different perspectives, or will we allow those who seek to preserve the status quo to prevail and hurtle us back to a less kind and gentle nation?

Mr. Obama must provide clarity to America so there is little doubt what is at stake. 1959 was a very good year, a historic year in many respects, but 1959 very well may represent the last year of the old world order, and although in 1959 not many of us knew what change would look like fifty years later, many knew change was afoot. Barack Obama must remind us that the America of 1959 no longer exists, and we must now allow those anti change forces to push us back into a world of darkness, intolerance, fear, and hate.