A Subtle Shift

Of course, I’m floating on air! It has been days since the landslide election and I still have trouble hitting solid ground. What once seemed an impossible dream now lights up my every waking hour in countless, hopeful ways: A thoughtful, intelligent, eloquent multicultural democrat ousted the bush-infected rightwing reactionary, male supremacist good-ol’-boy administration. While I write these lines, he is busy tightening the nuts and bolts on an enormous, wide-sweeping machinery of honest-to-goodness change that will roll through the staunch White House and leave us breathless and excited.

The tide has turned. Years of Bush/Cheney-induced depression seem to fall from my soul. There is a light on the horizon and its name is Barack Obama. I still pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. I pick up Time magazine umpteen times a day to look at the headlines and make sure it really happened. We, the people have spoken. King George’s reign is over.

I went to work the day after election, all smiles and with a Tigger-like bounce in my step and studied my coworkers. In a notoriously red state, emotions were mixed and not openly displayed. To my surprise, nobody gloated, but I did not hear any negative rants either. What I did see, was a subtle shift in the bearing of some of my non-white coworkers.

I saw no arrogance anywhere. No loud celebrating. No in-your-face nyah-nyah-nyah, as so many white folks feared. Only a gentle pride and a sense of their own brighter destiny. A quiet satisfaction that now, at long last, Americans of Color have come home. It seemed as though they were saying, “We were always here. We were always Americans, you just failed to notice.”

While white America was busy categorizing, judging and stereotyping African Americans, we did fail to notice the real depth of black culture. And perhaps, tired of our ignorance, black people stopped bringing it to our attention. Who can blame them if they resign to a ‘what’s the use’ philosophy? Why continue to try to prove that they are smart and strong, creative and resourceful if nobody wants to hear it?

Now, with an intelligent, sensitive, popular and incredibly cool non-white man heading for the Oval Office, my African American friends and coworkers suddenly find themselves written into history. With one of their own heading for leadership, they no longer need to doubt themselves or prove themselves. I notice the gleam of hope in their eyes, but also something greater: a sense of destiny and self we whites have long taken for granted.

A black janitor stops to glance at a newpaper, carelessly tossed on the counter. It is not his paper, but it headlines his president. He simply must read it. A black nurse quietly scans the internet for updates on the election. Two black clerks discuss the unbelievable in hushed voices. When I greet them, they respond. And they seem just a little friendlier. This is their moment. Yet, in the long run, it is opportunity for all Americans to grow in friendship and understanding. It is our best stab at racial equality.

They were always here. Strong, smart and black, they were always Americans. It is time for us white folks to get with the program…