Thirty years ago, my dad told me he'd never vote for a black man.

Tell your Dad "Good Job"! How can you get beyond the growth your father has experienced? Tell him he's a good man and I'm proud of him!

My dad said when he was a kid, both of his parents absolutely hated non-whites. By 2008, she was so excited about Obama that he was all she talked about for nearly a year. 10 or 15 years ago, she was an extreme right winger. She hated gay people, hated minorities, hated anyone that didn't live by "traditional christian values". I'm not sure what happened but she is probably as liberal as I am now.

character and if you are a person of good character, you do not care about the color of ones skin.

A man meets God and says to him: "When will America have a woman president?"
God replies: "Not in your lifetime."
The man asks: "When will we have a gay president?"
God replies: "Not in your lifetime."
The man asks: "When will we have a black president?"
God replies, laughing: "Not in MY lifetime!"


It makes me really happy that not only did one of these come true, but the others seem possible as well. I wonder when god thinks we'll have an atheist president...

The separation of church and state?

but, whoever it was, would have NEVER fessed up to it.

I guess I meant an "open" atheist.

I always knew we were moving in this direction. This is the real American story. Thanks for sharing it.

She lived more than a hundred years and saw many changes. She herself changed over the years and I think she would have loved Barack Obama.

A boyfriend wrote this in her yearbook:



When grapes grow big as pumpkins
When Rockefeller hasn't got a cent
When Bullfrogs start singing Bees Knees
And we have a colored President
When Ivory soap sinks in water
And the crust of the earth fall thru
And when we don't have any more movies
Then I might forget about you.

This boyfriend was long gone when my great aunt married a guy born in Italy, the love of her life, a divorced Catholic gentleman her White Anglo Saxon Parents parents or she herself as a high school girl would never have accepted.

People grow.

I hope we don't have to wait for the hateful hearts to die. I hope we can change them one heart at a time.

Fucking awesome, in fact. The racists in my family never recovered, they just died off, like dinosaurs.

Thank you for sharing this.

maybe she would have let go of her racism too. good on your dad.

-Laelth

Whatever it was, we need to bottle it and give it away for FREE. Congratulations for one more conversion. At least his life and yours will be better for his transformation.

he was always the old-fashioned kind of working-man's Democrat, the union supporter who wasn't a social liberal. That has been something of a divide between us over the years, though I'm behind his pro-labor stances 100%. He supported Hillary in 2008 and "reluctantly" voted for Obama over McCain, and mostly because McCain chose a psycho for VP. So it surprised me when he was this emotionally attached to the President. Surprised me in the best of ways. He wasn't like this when it was Clinton vs. Dole.

I'm still not going to raise the issue of gay marriage at Thanksgiving dinner. But he's an elderly man, and he knows where the President stands on that issue now, and he still stood by the President. So I'm proud.

I love these conversion stories. What changed for your dad? Was it a gradual change, or was it quick?

My father has now voted for Obama twice and frequently tells off idiot racists when and where he finds them.

For that change, I am proud of him.