Barack Obama, President-Elect.

At this moment, I’m still in shock. The pessimist in me was sure the powers that be weren’t going to allow a black man to occupy the highest government seat in this country. Still I watched Obama run his campaign and I must admit, what he lacks in experience, he makes up for with focus and tact. At no point in his election campaign did I see him visibly shaken up by the effects of the campaign process.

It seemed as if he knew he’d be seeing it through until the very end, thus everything about his campaign was on point. His handling of the Reverend White situation was touted as a potentially damaging moment, yet he said what he needed to say and did what he needed to do, in order to keep moving forward.

He somehow skirted the issue about his lack of international experience, which in my opinion, can only be properly assessed from decisions made from the presidential post--and not predicted beforehand. On a sidenote, I wouldn’t say President Bush boasted a notable degree of international experience prior to being elected for his first term—neither was his aptitude for international relations questioned in detail. I suppose that moment in time required a different leader than the one we require now. At any rate, the Republican camp tried to expound on any possible shortcoming, in a vain attempt to sway voters away from Obama. Every speech he gave, despite the occasional flub, was pertinent and noteworthy. Some may say his debate techniques were too academic, but that obviously didn’t hurt him enough to slow him down.

Still, I’m hung up on the apparent ease that Obama exhibited on his way to being elected. He made it look incredibly easy! I mean, he rocked this election without so much as batting an eye, and he did it with poise—it seemed effortless. My most heartfelt congratulations go out to President-Elect Barak Obama and his team.

Now for the primary purpose of this article…I had to give my props to Obama before I began this treatise, because I am now about to take the topic of discussion in a more, abrasive direction.

This is an epic event, but I believe it is merely a step in the right direction and in my honest opinion, hardly a reason for black people to recline in the afterglow of Obama’s political victory.  Race, as an issue, has been a contentious theme for me throughout my short lifetime, and I am vexed to have witnessed minimal discourse about it take place during this election. I was blessed to be born after the civil rights movement when being black meant more than using slang and listening to hip hop.

My generation rises on the heels of those folks who were literally restricted within society for no reason other than their dermal hue. I could not imagine being ridiculed because of the seat I choose to occupy on the bus or not being able to walk through particular neighborhoods (EDIT: Today, the neighborhoods I can’t walk through are more likely to be neighborhoods which my own people occupy).

The price paid by Black people in the past, unfortunately did not adjust for inflation as time progressed. Instead, blackness has acquired this “sensational” quality. It is no longer a unifying characteristic but merely a sequence of statistics and social trends--socialized stage make-up, obscuring the fact that our solidarity and consciousness are not what they used to be.

I wanted to address this issue now because I’ve heard plenty of people discuss how important it was to “vote for the first Black president”. Despite my pride in Obama being able to surmount the obstacles to becoming the first Black president-elect, I wonder if our preoccupation with this apparent victory for “color” is blinding us from the increasing importance of America’s social, race-related issues. Yes, he’s darker skinned, and yes, he is of African descent—but why does that matter? I refuse to call this election’s outcome a success for American culture, because this country’s track record for racial tolerance is negligible, at best—and no, neither one Black president-elect nor any amount of de jure legislation can correct a psychologically maintained history of sustained racial intolerance.

A New Blackness, for a New Age

A short science lesson for you: the cosmos is 99.8% darkness. That’s my personal estimation, but the following rationale is quite compelling. From a distance, all planets appear to be circular; however in truth, what is circular is simply the atmosphere of a planet—which is but a molecular buffer between the planet’s occasionally solid core and the space beyond it. Since some planets are made of gas and have no core (as far as we know), one can deduce that the majority of outer space is more or less, empty space.

For purposes of this article, I will define the blackness of space as “the absence of light, color, sound, and mass”. I consider space to be true blackness, but only in the sense that there is nothing in expansive portions of it that occupies space. The distance from earth to the sun is about 93 million miles, so as mentioned above, outer space is generally empty space that is filled in with scattered phenomena of molecular interaction that we call stars, planets, galaxies, nebulas, etc. 

However, one finds that emptiness is a misleading notion in regard to the blackness of space, because within the darkness if one looks in the right direction, light can be found piercing through this apparently empty darkness. Light exists because blackness permeates the empty space, within space. Hence the notion, “without darkness, there’d be no light”.

For eons, people have avoided darkness for various reasons: without light, we cannot see the seeds we’re planting, where we are traveling, but primarily we cannot see the animal attempting to hunt us down. Darkness has long since been something coupled with fear—fear of the unknown, fear of nature, and a fear of vulnerability. A mother’s womb is darkened, but far from empty. Darkness may imply uncertainty or formlessness, but it also represents potential and a medium for the perception of light.

The Greeks called the birthplace of the gods “kaos”. It was symbolized by an enormous, dark abyss. From this darkness, came all things that man cognized from the amorphous, shadowy elements of his darkened imagination. Uncertainty and every other realm of existence wherein chance and chaos reside--that dark, gaping abyss of endless possibility—societies now associate with fear, and demonized it via humankind's attempt to subdue nature. Zygmunt Bauman, in his book “Globalization: The Human Consequences”, discusses this behavioral characteristic of modern man, and describes it as his "pursuit of transparency".

Globalization exists as a purposeful force, not only as a mechanism for the mitigation of human separation through technological innovation, but more so as a tool for homogenization—which is essentially forced transparency, because in similarity is predictability. The more alike we are, the less uncertainty there is surrounding our intra-cultural interactions; however, the similarities being imposed on nations are of a superficial, commercial quality—they have nothing to do with affirming the already existing similarity we have as human beings.

I offer this reasoning as a counter-argument to the deeply ingrained perception of color and race that pervades the very core of this country. Nothing in this world can be explained by producing some narrative about the dichotomy of black versus white, democrats versus republicans, or good versus evil. The age of the either/or logical argument is over.

Duality is no longer pertinent to our evolution as a species. Life is a multiplicity of processes, interactions, and elements. Just because the various colors of light cannot be witnessed, does not mean we are justified in ignoring them as the constituents of light. It takes every color of the spectrum to produce light as we know it, and it takes darkness to provide the contrast that allows us to appreciate luminous space.

My point is this: the entire notion of race is a farce. It is a method of social organization that was born in the medieval minds of imperialists and budding capitalists—before it was later recognized as a mode of nationalized self-consciousness. It is amazing that a person of African descent made his way to becoming an American president; however one ignores the dismal thought process that has allowed this event to become something we’re proud of. Of course we’re proud, but all people should be proud—not merely people of African descent.

I realize it is a vicious cycle that fuels this “race war”. There’s been gradual, geometric progress, slowly converting bigots to tolerant individuals in seemingly fractional increments. There’s been no consensus between all people to be bigger people than their parents. Not to mention, there’s a broadcasted opinion of all people that feeds into our stereotyped perceptions of each other on a daily basis. We each promote an agenda of separation when we become convinced that our successes or failures are part and parcel of our skin color—rather than an aspect of our internal stature.

Greed and a thirst for power brought the vast corners of this globe together. Mankind has always sought to carve out a niche for himself and everything else on this green earth—a place for everything, and everything in its place. This type of logic gave birth to territory, race, sex, sexual orientation, hierarchy, racism, evolution, religion, brand names, architectural styles, whatever. The Tower of Babel need not have existed at any historical point in time because we live within its perplexing shadow right now.

We can no longer hear each other clearly because we are all mumbling in archaic dialects we’ve been taught and bred to speak—rather than in the universal tongue of compassion. Compassion knows no religious denomination, no racial classifications, no economic status, and no historical boundary. It is the language of Gandhi, of Martin Luther King, of Mother Theresa—it is the language of vigilant peace.

Call it idealism, utopianism, or any other “ism” and you’d merely be proving my point. Complexity abounds in this world, it is the very essence of nature, and attaching a label to every single complex issue does nothing but make things evermore complex. I’m happy we’ve elected a President who based his campaign platform on change, but it’s not solely his responsibility to make sure change takes place.

Change is a process, and a lengthy one at that. He will need our help to make the change we believe we seek, a reality. It may take more than four years—in all honesty, I’m compelled to say it will take forever. But as long as we’re moving toward change, we change, and we ensure the process of humanity’s growth and social development continues to benefit all people. I see no reason to celebrate as of yet. Although the symbol of our nation’s hope won’t enter White House until January 20th, 2009, our work begins now.