A friend of mine who currently attends Columbia, and has lived a fairly sheltered suburban life, was chatting with me and mentioned that he went to Harlem to join in the celebration last night after Obama's historic election to the presidency.
In this conversation he said that he was "jumping and celebrating with peopel that looked like gangsters and thugs, it was amazing, and really made me rethink my perception." This brought two things to mind:
First, that beneath all overly hyped "Obama will change America in the first 30 seconds he's in office" mind-set, there might actually be something to the idea that simply having Obama as our next President will change things in out country--regardless of whether his policies are successful.
Second, its sad that it takes a bi-racial (yes, bi-racial) president to unite whites and blacks in one of the most racially contentious neighborhoods in the country. Where was the initiative to go and interact with each other before last night's historic election? I guess thats a bit of a futile question, and maybe it doesn't matter, but its one that I thought of right away.
On a final note, before heading to sleep so that I can be productive tomorrow, please do comment on these posts with any thoughts you have -- I want to hear them.
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