President Obama and the American race problem

One thing about this Presidential campaign is that it did not feature a consideration of race as a central theme. It is my understanding that John McCain did not allow overt race-baiting as part of his campaign, and in my view, he largely succeeded. Obama wisely did not run as a Black candidate, but McCain had the option to try to force him into that role and as I understand it, he refused.

The result, in my opinion, is that the outcome of the Presidential campaign rests on factors other than race. Obama has been elected as the President of the United States, not as the Black President of the United States. To me that is one of the most amazing things in this very amazing Presidential year.

Sure considerations of race came in to it. They had to, since Obama is rather obviously Black even if you are unaware of his history. But that is now a side issue. It's not an unimportant issue, but it was not the central issue of this election.

As important as his race is to so many people, and as important historically it is that an African-American has been elected the American President, it is even more important that he was elected primarily because more voters think he is the better candidate to deal with the immediate problems America faces. Obama was not elected because he is Black, nor was he defeated because of his race. He was elected because out of the gaggle of candidates presented, the majority of voters felt that he was the best individual for the job.

Brown vs. Board of Education occurred while I was in elementary school, so I have lived all my aware life with the Civil Rights movement. The election of Barack Obama as President does not mean that the problems of Civil Rights and race are over, but it is the first time America has ever - as a nation - faced a set of problems and explicitly stated that race was not the first issue to be dealt with when choosing a leader.

That is the real progress we are seeing here.

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Mary L. Dudziak has an excellent essay on Obama and the Image of America over at Balkinazition where I first posted this view as a comment. She describes the barrier America's racial problems have been to the American argument that its system of government was a model for the world.