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November 21, 2008
Exclusive: Election is a Watershed Moment
I am not unhappy with the result of the recent presidential election. In the end, I think the outcome is better than if it had been the reverse. Sometimes a greater good is served when what we get is not what we want. Occasionally, greater forces are at work than our narrow political interests would suggest. This is such an occasion.
Readers of these pages know I am a conservative. But I have had a deep and long involvement with the struggle for civil rights, the most important domestic moral imperative of the 20th century, beginning in the early 1960s. For many years it was also my honor to represent Dr. C. DeLores Tucker, one of our greatest and most principled civil rights leaders. Through these activities I experienced the concerns and aspirations of the black community, gaining a perspective I think is rarely available to whites.
It seems to me that the black community at large has never felt completely a part of this nation. Somehow, they have felt as if they have never been fully welcomed into the American family. They have perceived a kind of distance that could not be bridged, try as they might. It was as if black Americans, whose ancestors built this nation as certainly as did my own, had never seen their contribution honored; that their efforts had never been fully recognized. The optimism of those of my black friends has been poignant. They have maintained a deep and abiding love for this nation and harbored the hope of full participation even as they have experienced a palpable exclusion.
When Barack Obama was elected president, that alienation was overcome. Blacks, as a whole, finally felt as if they were an integral part of the fabric of this nation. One of the most poignant observations was made by Whoopi Goldberg, who said that she had always loved this country; that she had always believed in its promise and its opportunity. But, she said, “Now I feel like I can put down my suitcase.” It was a profound statement. It spoke to estrangement and separation and of unrequited love and yet of abiding hope.
If the election of Barack Obama has had the effect of bringing blacks fully into the mainstream; if it has helped the black community see itself as a part of the larger whole – as fully American –then it has been worth it. For too long, for too many black people patriotism has been seen as a betrayal of race. Now, for blacks, the promise of America has finally been kept. They are free to give full vent to the patriotism they have so fervently longed to express and that has always been due their country. In the election of Barack Obama they truly have overcome.
Strangely, some of the separation between blacks and whites over the last two decades has been because whites have not understood this continuing black alienation. After all, we see blacks in all walks of life. They are in the professions. They are teachers. They are our neighbors. They are sports and movie stars. They are the CEOs of some of our most important and successful companies. They are students at our elite universities. Whites largely assumed black equality and were confused that blacks did not. That confusion resulted in a feeling in whites that they were walking on eggshells, reinforcing the separation blacks perceived. With blacks’ overwhelmingly declaring the separation over, white confusion seems to be lifting. So, while this step has allowed blacks to put down their suitcases, it has also allowed whites to exhale.
The thought of black alienation is disquieting. The notion that an entire group of Americans has felt excluded is distressing. The idea, then, that we, as a nation, have, in a dramatic way, finally and fully embraced equality as a reality and in so doing overcome black alienation and white confusion is truly inspiring. Nothing could be better for this country than that all our citizens, black and white, see themselves unified, at least, as countrymen; as Americans all.
How wonderful it is to know that this community of Americans now sees itself as a valued and cherished part of an American tapestry that embraces all its children.
As important as this election has been in black America’s perception of its final inclusion into the fabric of the nation, is the fact that it represents the expiation of the nation at large of the ancient blood sin of historical racism. Equality has been the law for 60 years but the vestiges of Jim Crow and institutional racism have taken some time to dissipate. White America largely left its troubled racial past behind it some time ago but perception has a way of lagging somewhat behind reality. White America has been ready for black America to take its rightful place in American society for three decades. Indeed, it is clear that most white Americans have been under the impression that it already had.
Still, there was lingering guilt. Some of us still remember attending segregated schools even though we had no idea we were doing so. My grammar and junior high schools in Northern Virginia must have been segregated since there were no blacks in attendance. But we were children. We had no idea until somewhat later that they had been officially excluded. When we found out, we engaged in a generational effort to right the wrong we had inherited.
The last generation that supported institutional racism is rapidly dying and the last generation – my own – to remember the results of that institutional racism, will be largely gone within the next 30 years. The vast majority of white Americans do not remember a time when there were official impediments to black aspiration. Soon, there will be none left to remember; none who will have experienced that time. The generation behind mine remembers only a time when blacks were prominent in all walks of American life.
Now, in one dramatic act, we have collectively moved on, as the old spiritual had it, black and white together. We have all overcome the sins of the past and recognize a new relationship. Blacks have nothing holding them back, as many of its political and cultural leaders have observed, and whites have nothing further for which to apologize. We, finally, are not our fathers and bear no guilt for their acts. Whites, no less than blacks, have been liberated and the relationship between the races can now exist on its own terms unfreighted by historical animosity and oppression. Blacks are freed from the perception of second class status, whites, from ancient guilt.
In the last week several black cultural leaders have used the same language in speaking to black America: “No more excuses.” What a profound injunction. What an expression of optimism and hope. And what an expression of historic national catharsis.
This election has also had an important international impact. For at least the last 60 years, other nations, even countries like Iran with no room to criticize, have beaten us with the stick of fundamental racism. It did not matter what good works we did. It did not matter how much we did to promote freedom and prosperity. It did not matter how many people we liberated; how noble our acts. It did not matter how much we sacrificed for others in lives and treasure. We were in the view of other nations – primarily those in Europe – still a nation of brutish racists. They were motivated more by envy than by principle, but regardless of our generosity and openhandedness, they could still see themselves as superior for our troubled racial history.
Now Europe has awakened to a new paradigm. Gone is their last excuse for anti-Americanism. By all accounts, this election has resulted in deep soul searching throughout Europe. France, which has, until now, maintained its self-impression of moral superiority, has realized that the “racist” America of its imagination has elected a black president. What black French citizen, they are asking themselves, have they elected to any high office ever? Their view now is something bordering on cognitive dissonance.
We have, in one act, seized our rightful moral authority internationally, something that is now recognized throughout the world. I am under no illusion that Europe’s jealousy will dissipate any time soon. But it now stands naked without even the fig leaf of assumed American racism with which to satisfy its vanity and fantasy of moral superiority. Add to this Europe’s reliance on our fortitude and economic and military power and we can expect to see measurable change in our international relationships. For one thing, it seems likely that we will, at least for a time, see a dissipation of Europe’s incessant sniping. Whether it translates into more consistent support for our international policies remains to be seen but I think we can expect less overt opposition and can at least hope for more reliable allies in our international efforts.
There are yet other effects of this watershed moment. We can now disagree on policy initiatives on their own terms unaccompanied by ugly imputations of subliminal racism. Our debates can be on policy itself without regard for who proposes it. We will have honest discussions with one another that have no reference to race. President Obama will gather support or opposition on the merits of his ideas and not as a surrogate for racial animus or grievance.
It is significant that Obama received a slightly higher percentage of white votes than both John Kerry and Al Gore. What it means is that whites took the measure of policy and voted on that basis, not on the basis of race. It also means that blacks are free, now, to judge policy on the basis of performance and to explore new intellectual alternatives without the nagging worry that doing so is somehow a betrayal of race.
This, truly, is a time of tremendous, historical opportunity. It does not have to be a time of unanimity but, perhaps for the first time in our history since the founding, it can be a time for honest discussion of competing ideas among equals. This year we finally embraced the promise of our uniquely American scripture: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Family Security Matters Contributing Editor John W. Howard is a lawyer, specializing in corporate and business litigation who also founded a non-profit, public interest law firm specializing in First, Second and Tenth Amendment issues. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
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