Tired of the First Black President Yet?

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Tuesday night, I had tears in my eyes when I recognized a truly transformational event had occurred in America. The perception of African Americans that they are second class citizens has been squashed, perhaps forever. The next generation will be more color blind than every before in the US.
The real issue has always been rich and poor. But few people would have you believe that. Ronald Reagan perhaps put it best by classifying some poor as "unworthy". Everyone knew he referred to the stereotype of the AFDC mother and her irresponsible boyfriends. Most people saw those faces as black first. But most AFDC mothers were in fact white. Most AFDC mothers had a job history and would return to work within months. Very few were stuck forever on the dole.
Since the election, only a few journalists have mentioned Obama's skills. Few have mentioned that he is the best man for the job since Colin Powell did days before the election. Yet clearly, his communication skills, he grasp of the complex issues is as good as any man who has stood up in that office, and MUCH better than many more.
But we don't hear about his superior competence.
It seems pretty apparent that white America still sees color first.
The Buffalo News

In the midst of that meltdown, it was concerns about money, more than anything, that propelled the first black major-party nominee to victory.
The financial crisis put lots of Americans, if not in the same class, at least in the same boat. And finally, green trumped black as concerns about money outweighed trepidations about the color of a man's skin.
It's the irony of ironies that a country that built its economic power on the back of free black labor now turns to a black man to save its crumbling financial structures. But it's also a measure of how far we've come. It's proof of our growth that enough middle-and working-class Americans of all races united to put their common economic interests above all else.

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