wait a minute, he's black?

The issue of race, of Obama being a black president never came to my mind during this election. I can say that with all sincerity. I felt that it wasn't him but those around him that played the race card. To me he was the young Senator running for office, his youth made more of an impact in my mind. Of course I realized he was white and African but it was just so much easier to blur the color and listen to the man.

Now that he's won, the biggest thing about it was that he was the first black president. With images of Jesse Jackson crying, of black people all over the world celebrating, I thought wait a minute, this him being black thing WAS a big deal after all. And memories of our past wrongdoings were brought to mind, slavery, racial discrimination and now our future, where someone eloquently said a child born this year and growing up in his term will not know him as black, but as president.

I just wish it wasn't a big deal. I wish that a Mexican, a Chinese, a woman could run for office and not have their appearance become an issue. I wish they could run for office and the fact that their last name is Gonzalez or Li or the fact that they have boobs not factor in their qualificiations or be a topic for public debate. I'm sure in their minds they can't escape their own feelings of being an ethnic minority or gender minority and they have to deal with that on their own. That it would cease to be a big deal, that it would be a deal at all. We're not equal yet, not by a long shot.

And yes, I wrote in Ron Paul.