I appreciate the symbolism implicit in the fact that a day devoted to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. comes immediately before the day when the United States swears in its first black President. You’d have to be pretty thick not to see some symbolism in that confluence of events. But, I am not black, and Barack Obama’s race has never inspired much of an emotional response with me. Intellectually, I appreciate how difficult black history has been and that seeing that a black man is able to rise to the highest position in the land is a very powerful thing. But, like I said, this has not inspired a visceral response for me.
Instead, I am excited because Barack Obama seems to be a person with formidable talents: intellectual, oratorical, organizational, and otherwise. My optimism about his Presidency comes from his individual potential and not his skin color. Sure, I love my country a bit more when it’s the sort of country where a black man can succeed rather than the sort of country that holds a person back based on their race. But, at the gut level, Obama’s race has been more or less a matter of indifference for me personally. But then, maybe that’s the sort of thing Dr. King was dreaming of when he imagined that his children would one day live in a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
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