From google.com, via Dailykos.com
Being a 21 year old student at Boston University from Brooklyn, New York, and being apart of a middle class family in the ghettos of the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of that borough, I can easily say that race relations in this country has certainly played a massive role in my life.
Whether those moments were joyous occasions, or some of the most egregious episodes that I have experienced in life, I certainly understand the array of emotions when race plays a prominent factor in all of our lives.
Sometimes here in Boston (whether on this campus), in New York, and everywhere else in this country, there are people who are just simply still racist. That goes for not only one particular race, but all races, who have their individuals play apart in one of human nature's ugliest characteristics.
Here in Boston, either from fellow students or people in this town, I have sadly been subjected to the terrible feeling of being stereotyped, neglected, underestimated, and indirectly disrespected because of my race despite being a student at a renowned institution. And it hasn't come just from white students or white residents here in Boston, or in New York. I’ve felt that coolness from a variety of different races, from Asian (Southeast Asian, Indian included) to Hispanic to even, well, my own race (if that is even possible). Feeling a little sullen by this, it fuels my passion even more, without even going into full detail of his policies, into the rapture I have for these people to turn around and vote for a black man despite the fact of their egregious treatment of another black man because of my color.
Amalgamated with knowing the history of my race in this country, those modern day personal feelings lead to a sense of jubilee and satisfaction that I share with so many others on the “left online community” and throughout:
The fact that this country is about to vote for the first minority President it has ever had, and how that individual is a unifying half-black ,half-white, but still African-American that has captivated us all with this campaign and his persona.
But what if Obama wasn’t a Democrat with semi-liberal views? Would I still vote for him, because of his skin?
What if the roles were reverse and Obama, instead of John McCain (newly crowned winner of the worst campaign in American history), was in the pocket of Cheney, Bush, the oil companies, other big businesses, Fox News, and Mark Drudge? What if Obama was the one who refused to listen to General George Petarus' thoughts that he could never call Iraq a "victory" for America, just like McFool has done? What if Obama was steadfast to taxing Medicaid and Medicare, and deregulate the health care system just like the banks were done in 1999, a move that McCain and most of his party don't mind doing?
What if, in short, Obama was a conservative Republican, steadfast to the beliefs that conflict not only the ones held by the liberal community, but also a majority of his own race, just like “Uncle Toms” (yes, I went there) like Alan Keyes and Ken Blackwell?
I wouldn’t vote for Barack Obama just because he is black. I couldn’t stomach voting for him if he was representing a party where disunity and divisiveness are an integral part of why The South was The Red South in the electorate college until potentially today. I couldn’t stomach voting for him if he was supporting the party that is still subliminally racist to a majority of his own race. I couldn’t stomach voting for him if he gave tax cuts to the rich like the last eight years, or see the economic sector almost collapse again with deregulating, CEO friendly policies supported by him.
This is why the most important thing in this election, for me, is not the fact that America is voting for a black President. Amazingly enough, that tremendous revelation of the United States voting a black man for the highest office in the land, something that was inconceivable even up to NOW for some, has been trumped by the paradigm element of this campaign, and it is quite simple to look at:
How conservative policies have failed America.
Conservative policies have brought ugly division towards this country, and has basically steered the nation into a semi-faux Civi War epoch of divisiveness, nastiness, and flat out untrustworthy, mean spirited sentiments held by Americans about their fellow countrymen and women.
Conservative policies have let a majority of the affluent become apathetic about "Providing Jobs" for this nation, as "Mr. 27%" said in 2000 after he was sel.......elect......took over the Presidency .
Sadly, there is more.
Conservative policies have lead to same sex couples and gays in this nation still feeling neglected, scorned, and unloved. Conservative policies have lead to a health care system ranked in the low 30's behind a proud but nevertheless still young country in Slovakia. This, the United States of America, this great nation, behind Slovakia in health care providing for its citizens is staggering and alarming to witness.
Conservative policies have lead to us being called royal hypocrites by some in other countries, and possibly being charged with war crimes for what has taken place at Guantanamo Bay.
Conservative policies have lead to the myth of a full "liberal bias" clouting the airwaves. (And those same airwaves to panic to create fabricated “fair and balance” to make all sides happy instead of focusing solely on the truth, damaging the fabric of pure journalism.)
Conservative policies have lead to the lamentable response after Katrina and Rita hit, and how “small government” was really “invisible” or “no government” in actual reality in name.
Conservative policies have put us in a country where we have no business being in. Where the Prime Minister of the country, Nouri-al Maliki, wants us out. And yet, those who are steadfast to those same policies, want us to stay in a country where those inhabitants of the country want the opposite?
Finally, conservative policies have led to the fiscal devastation almost collapsing in this country to Great Depression levels. That's scary, and it shows how pernicious they are to all of us, rich or poor, Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, and anyone else.
I'm not even going to get into the voter suppression tactics of 2000, 2004, and 2008, the Reaganomics of the 80's, and the vitriol spewed by right wing strategists and think tanks to show further the pitfalls of conservatism in America.
Outside of those in the left community, who know what I say here is truth, and in the next few words, it goes beyond what the Cheney Administration has done. It goes beyond the horror of a campaign ran by McCain and Palin, a semi-autocratic like governor whose reputation, no matter how hard her and her supporters try, is devastated by her abuse of power.
It even goes beyond “King Ronald, “Shining on the hill and loved by Peggy Noonan” Reagan.”
Because conservative policies can always come back to haunt this country, and that may sadly be the case in some time down the line, whether it is in the near or distant future. I just hope deeply that they stay away as long as possible, and that people in this country learn from history to see the poison that they are to the human element of life. So important and so necessary is our categorical understanding of this, the harm of conservative policies.
So important and necessary that it trumps the first black President narrative, because what if Obama was part of this deteriorating Republican Party, and yet, he was still elected. Yes, the historical nature of that moment would still be there. But for me, the essence of it all would be greatly diminished because of that (and the irony of the party that doesn't care about the broad of majority of Obama's race being the party representing the first African American President would leave a deplorable taste on my tongue.)
So important that even Obama would agree with how it equals, and if not passes, the startlingly and emotional fact that this country is voting for a minority for President of United States of America. Amidst all the blood shed and tears brought by those who fought for equal rights in this country until the day they died.
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