I can't help tearing up every time I think of FINALLY having a black nominee...

[polichick]

...of FINALLY having a black president and a beautiful black First Family. I can remember riding a bus in Detroit during the early 60s and wanting so much to get out of my seat to talk with a black girl around my age who was sitting a few seats away. I could tell that she wanted to talk with me too ~ but all we could do was smile because both of our grandmothers considered such "mixing" inappropriate.

We have come a long way since then ~ I AM SO HAPPY TODAY, not because kids of all colors can now play together (our own kids already do that), but because now every little boy and every little girl on any bus in any city across this country can imagine themselves having any job they want. I always wondered what happened to that little girl I saw ~ I hope she loved Barack's speech last night as much as I did!

[EFerrari]

1. I woke up with a blotchy face today from crying off and on all day yesterday.

An ageless, deep wound was just tended a little more. We're so lucky to be witnessing.

[polichick]

5. We sure are lucky! :)

[succubus.blues]

2. I am amazed, too.

I was raised Mormon (no longer practicing), but when I was there, Blacks were not allowed to hold any official positions, I know that's changed now, but it really wasn't so long ago that this would have been completely unheard of, a black president. I am honored, thrilled that I can witness this.

[polichick]

8. Maybe those who don't have memories like ours won't get...

...the significance of this ~ but it's truly thrilling for me too!

[bullimiami]

3. he is only half black why doesnt his white half seem to matter?

[polichick]

10. In the days I'm recalling, the U.S. used the "one-drop" standard...

Even now, most people in this country would consider Barack black.

[flobee1]

17. Its all a matter of perception

The best analogy is the scene from "Cotton Club" where the two dancers try to get a hotel room.
The hotel clerk says "Sorry, but we dont admit mixed couples"
The light skinned female then says "My father was white and my mother was black, so what color does that make me sir?"

I just wonder if the country is ready or mature enough for this yet?
Yes, we have come a long way, but there are people in this country who still have the 1920's mentality

[polichick]

27. True - I was reminded of that working the PA primary. :(

[Butch350]

45. Its all a matter of perception...

I just wonder if the country is ready or mature enough for this yet?

The Country is - just some of the people in it or not.

[bdamomma]

51. to bad for those people who still have that 20"s mentality.

[donheld]

52. Cuz he puts clothes on that half

:shrug:

[Kierkegaard]

57. Because it isn't what you are,

but what COLOR you are.

[Xipe Totec]

4. Interesting. do you always see things in black and white? nt

[EFerrari]

12. . . . .

:spank:

The world is a little happier today because we've given the rest of the community a reason not to give up on this country.

Celebrate with us, Xipe Totec. It's not the black and white but the rainbow in between that seems a little more possible today.

[Raine]

35. word nt

[crankychatter]

15. slimer

no text warranted

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

6. delete

[goldcanyonaz]

7. I pray that labels of color can go away one day soon.

[polichick]

9. This gets us one step closer to that - but it's important to celebrate it for the leap it is!

[David Zephyr]

11. Me, too!

This is one very proud American guy today! Very, very proud!

[EFerrari]

13. Maybe the younger people don't get what the hoopla is about

but I'll trade that innocence for the joy of seeing Barack and Michele being cheered yesterday.

lol

:toast:

[polichick]

14. So will I - JOY is the right word!

[bhikkhu]

32. Second that...and I am one that never really got the big deal...

I think the Obama's are a beautiful family and I couldn't be happier, looking forward to the next four years.

But I think there are so many world leaders who are black, and asian, and so many women in leadership roles, that the race thing never really seemed like a big deal. If it works everywhere else, why not here? We are supposed to be the leaders of the world in freedom and equality, after all.

[polichick]

34. Eugene Robinson just said that it is a step toward living up to the...

...promise of our Constitution ~ amazing to think it took us so long!

[DeschutesRiver]

54. When I was born

blacks in my country were still having their votes thrown away, and being forcibly kept from voting booths.

In many places, they couldn't use the same drinking faucet I put my young "privileged only by being without pigment" white lips onto, they couldn't still safely take a fun family road trip across this country and know for a fact that they could find a motel for the night that would probably accept pets but not black people, they couldn't even be assured they could use the same toilet that I did when they went out for a Friday night on the town.

I am not even talking about white neighbors who could kill another neighboring family's father and loved one, without penalty, because it was a black life lost. When I got a bit older, a friend of mine in 8th grade was running for student body president, and asked me to be her "campaign manager" - which I was for all of a couple weeks, until my parents found out I was running a black girl's campaign. And pulled me off of that, with the usual threat of corporal punishment. I'd had no clue they held such racist thoughts until then. My mother shared charming gems with me about how she wouldn't eat meat cut by a black butcher or in any way touched by a black person (this from a woman born and raised in Canada, so this wasn't strictly an American problem - us americans just had a justified worse reputation due to our violence over the issue when contrasted with our supposed adherence to lofty ideals). Dad proudly admitted that growing up in his small Okie town, "we'd never let blacks off the train there", and he didn't use the word black, either. And that was just for starters - it was an insight at a young age that changed my outlook and life direction. Throughout all of this, I saw the civil rights movement launch and simply horrific things on our old black and white tv happening across the nation. A lot of death.

The reason this is big is that race was a huge deal in our country - we freaking enslaved people, fought a fu'g civil war over a bunch of states who saw no reason not to continue their plantation slave run lifestyle. The Confederate flag still flies in many places, and no, it is not flown as a mere relic piece of nostalgia for some. We made race based enslavement of other human beings a big deal here - that was the face of America (once we'd gotten done with the genocide of those brown Native Americans, to make room for us and our slave holdings).

There was no guarantee for most of my childhood that we'd ever get to a point before I died that I would see something miraculous (given our lack of equality here) like what Barack Obama's achieved. Sure, perhaps in some places in the world, such diversity is more common (definitely not in most of the world - it is just as ugly in places outside the US as it had been inside the US. Sometimes, just with different color battle lines drawn, but I mention it because race based bigotry is a big deal in so many places still). But until not color blindness but color acceptance continues to the point where no one marvels at it anymore, then we are still on that long journey.

We have just made the kind of progress with Obama's nomination that for some of us, who remember the old days with horror, and for others, whose lives were shattered by that treatment, signals a sea change from clinging to old ways to firmly establishing a forward looking new world here.

America has only talked the talk about freedom and equality in the main - now we are walking the walk.

I am glad for you if you never lived this history, or talked to those for whom it was real, or had to see awful injustice dished out daily. Not what we have today, but what we had just such a historically small time ago here - less than a lifetime ago here. I was born in a time when I got to see a bit of it. And like the OP, I have been teary in a good way since Tuesday.

[David Zephyr]

25. And what a moment it was.

I hadn't thought about it that way, but I'm glad I don't have that innocence either now that you pointed it out. It makes the moment all that more glorious, tender and triumphant.

I'm just so damned proud.

Rejoice!

:toast:

[SoFlaJet]

16. I'm just happy

that we have a GREAT candidate-who cares what color he is...

[polichick]

18. Millions of black children will REALLY care - it's a milestone to be treasured!

[SoFlaJet]

19. hey Poli

my 15 year old son and my 3 beautiful grandsons will really care. I don't want to see happen to them what I saw happen to my recently deceased Vietnam Veteran brother who suffered a lifetime of PTSD

[polichick]

20. My sons too - they're very happy, but they already knew they could be president.

[Catherina]

39. Word and pic

[JuniperLea]

21. I can't wait until skin color is only relevant at the Estee Lauder counter... eom

[polichick]

23. After the PA primary I realized we weren't as far along as I'd hoped...

But we'll get there.

[Swamp Rat]

22. k&r

[ErinBerin84]

24. I was just watching ABC news

and they were talking to children and college students about the precedent that Obama has set. They showed a guy from Morehouse college talk about Martin Luther King's I have a Dream Speech, and he said something like "The problem with a dream is that you eventually wake up from it. This morning I woke up and said "Wow...what happened last night really happened, it wasn't a dream." It made me tear up a bit.

[polichick]

26. That's it! It REALLY happened!!

Just heard on Hardball that Obama told Brian Williams he was thinking last night of all the black kids watching. He would be thinking of that!

[applegrove]

28. It is exciting. And what a beautiful family Obama does have. You Americans have

a right to be proud.

[polichick]

29. THANKS - we're finally getting something right after 7+ years of hell! :)

[applegrove]

30. Must feel wonderful to be a little freer of the nepharious neocons. What a relief

it will be in November.

[polichick]

31. I hope the whole world will celebrate with us (and forgive us too)!

[akbacchus_BC]

41. I like your little story, very moving too. This primary was historic ...

a Woman and an African American. Both would serve America well and Americans must be really proud that Senator Obama is the nominee. Yes, we will be celebrating with you come November and am pretty sure most of the world will be too.

[polichick]

47. Thank you! Maybe the world will hold one big inauguration party!!

[Raine]

33. Me too

especially after seeing the retrospective some of the networks showed on the long struggle, chilren being firehosed, MLK's speech etc. I was literally brought to tears to finally see a black man as the nominee of the USA.

[polichick]

36. So glad they're showing the struggle footage - I hadn't seen that...

I'm going to dare to believe that this will lead to a quantum leap in consciousness ~ we need a whole new mindset to deal with global warming and everything else!

:woohoo:

[mopinko]

37. i have shed many joyful tears. i have walked into another universe on the

bridge called barack obama.

[polichick]

48. "Bridge" is a great word in Barack's case...

He bridges whites and blacks, boomers and genXers, right and left ~ but imo it's most important that he has taken us across an almost forgotten bridge to the highest aspirations of our Constitution and, ultimately, to what's best in ourselves.

[Catherina]

38. A long way indeed my friend. The best part is that it was together

[CitizenLeft]

40. what a GREAT photo... I just stole it.

And I started crying at work yesterday while I was watching the delegate countdown here... off and on all night I wept. I don't always think of all the struggles we've gone through for the last 200 years - shame on me, I'm spoiled and have taken much for granted - but last night, it washed over me like a wave, all at once, and wouldn't stop. Last night was for my mother - and all of our ancestors and our seniors who got up every morning of their lives to face yet another day of being hated and ridiculed and oppressed just for being born. Last night was for them.

[Catherina]

42. Last night was for Emmet Till

Warning that there's a graphic picture in this thread (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6119674) but I've been thinking of Emmet Till and other martyred young men like him, as well as Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley this entire election.

Last night was for all of us, Black, White and other rainbow colors who believe in justice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmR1YvfIGng

We shall overcome, we shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We shall overcome some day

The Lord will see us through, the Lord will see us through
The lord will see us through some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
The Lord will see us some day

We’re on to victory, we’re on to victory
We’re on to victory some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We’re on to victory some day

We’ll walk hand in hand, we’ll walk hand in hand
We’ll walk hand in hand some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We’ll walk hand in hand some day

We are not afraid, we are not afraid
We are not afraid today
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We are not afraid today

The truth shall make us free, the truth shall make us free
The truth shall make us free some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
The truth shall make us free some day

We shall live in peace, we shall live in peace
We shall live in peace some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We shall live in peace some day



:hug:

[CitizenLeft]

43. yes... and the Scottsboro boys... and Rosewood... and...

...the list is long.

Backatcha, my friend. It's a new world. :hug:

[Catherina]

44. ! The Impossible Dream

:bounce:

I can't believe it. I was just watching old videos and crying from joy. It's been such a long Primary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g45Zj8HGEls - Barack Obama:The Impossible Dream

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY - Yes We Can

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky8Hvq-F0U - Si Se Puede Cambiar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU - Crush on Obama

:hug:

[CitizenLeft]

46. I hadn't seen "The Impossible Dream" one...

Very cool! Thanks for that one!

...and "Yes We Can" always gets to me...!

[mopinko]

50. fred hampton and mark clark nt

[polichick]

49. That IS definitely the best part!! :)

Love the photo!

[BlooInBloo]

53. Just having an option available as a possibility in one's mind is a HUGE step....

When people don't even *perceive* various avenues as being on the table of options, it's no wonder they don't pursue said avenues. That's why trailblazers are SO fucking important. They put more choices on EVERYONE'S table of options.

[PoliticalAmazon]

55. ITA. And the outpouring of support from people in other countries...

is so gratifying. It has not been comfortable for many of us who have friends in other countries, to be embarassed of the United States.

My friends in Geneva (one of which is Iranian) said that people are ecstatic about Obama, and glad it's not Hillary. The lies about sniper fire and Hillary's role in peace talks in Ireland really was bad for her reputation outside of the U.S.

[SeaLyons]

56. K&R

What a great post. Very historic campaign and nomination. We have participated in history, and it's very special and heart felt by us all I'm sure.

[BklynChick]

58. i've been crying a lot lately too.