Racial stereotypes and divides are far from dead in 2008 America but they're also not as rigid as they were before Tiger Woods, Will Smith and Oprah. Now, with a presidential candidate who is half-Black, America needs to blow the lid off lingering biases and fears if it is to choose the path to social and economic growth.
The choices made for the Republican slate have made the alternatives clear. One is to go back 40 years to pre-choice for women, to anti-science and to government-as-usual by lying to the public. The other is to take the deep leap of faith in the promising evidence that a Black man can lead the country forward in a globalizing world and that at the very least, he can't do worse than a White man in the White House has done for the past eight years.
Even with the choices clear, revolutionary change requires preparation to avoid trauma and make the transition smooth instead of divisive. For dealing with hard-core bigots among the population, the only recourse for the nation is to invoke the rule of law based on legislation and to call upon law enforcement when needed.
For others, whether White, Black, Asian, Hispanic or other minority in the "Melting Pot" United States, those who are simply stunned that such a grand change in presuppositions could take place so rapidly, imagination and a call to reason are the aids for making the transition in the two months leading up the election.
Few White Americans of voting age in 2008 have not heard the comment, "there goes the neighborhood," when a minority family moved in. The image is that of the 1960's television program, "The Beverly Hillbilly's," which starred a white Texas family who were suddenly "nouveau riche" because of oil. Reruns of that show now come off as stale. In contrast, the 1970's "Sanford and Son" reruns of a Black father and son are still funny and pertinent to all family cross-generational conflicts.
Upward mobility is the American way, regardless of race or ethnicity. Wealth is a factor in that upward movement and its effect can be adverse or positive depending on aims. Colonel Sanders started out with nothing but he wanted to make money with his chicken empire and he succeeded, as did a slew of others. The Beverly Hillbillies wanted to fit in with a snobbish society and they were the butt of jokes, as are many American wannabes in the nebulous field of status in America, the most democratic nation in the world.
A Black man is now running for president of the United States on a credible platform of improving the life of ordinary Americans by straight-dealing and leading them into prosperity through peace with the world instead of war. His assumption of that position presumes a fundamental change in the White House as it has been throughout the country's 250-year history.
The Americans in the White House after the 2008 election will have American values but will shed new light on fusty American icons and sacred cows. Menus for state dinners, for example, may change somewhat, but Michelle Obama is not likely to jettison the centuries old portraits George Washington in her turn to put her redecorating imprint on the White House as the country's First Lady. Most likely, she'll be plenty busy with raising her two daughters in a new location and context while meeting the demands on a woman to arrange functions of hospitality at the global level.
For those afraid of change and of seeing the White House devolve into an arena for chitlins and backyard barbeques, probability is the best reassurance.
Neither Barack Obama nor Michelle Obama got where they are without familiarity with the terrain and acclimation to its demands. That track record is the guarantee that the White House will remain America's cherished home base when a Black family moves in to improve the American neighborhood and disprove millenniums of presumptions throughout the world.
Helen Fogarassy is a New York based internationalist writer who has worked on a contract basis with the United Nations for nearly 20 years. She is the author of a suspense novel, The Midas Maze, about murderous hijinks in UN/US relations. She is also the author of The Light of a Destiny Dark, a novel about the Euro-American cultural gap through Hungarian eyes, and a nonfiction eyewitness tribute to the UN's work, Mission Improbable: The World Community on a UN Compound in Somalia. All are available on the major web bookstore sites.
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