Posted from the US
One of the images from last night that remains firm in memory is that of Jesse Jackson - his face in disbelief, overcome, and to a degree weeping.
I think when you lose hope, when you lose faith - when you are traumatized by hate and injustice - you start to develop a lashback mechanism. Jackson has struck out at many people - some deserving it, but some who did not.
The death of Martin Luther King probably marked the end of real hope for him - and Jackson's own failed run at the presidency likely reinforced a mentality of cynical reality and bitterness. A black man can never be president - not in this country.
Jackson represented to many Americans a former beacon of hope turned into a somewhat wounded creature, an angry man surrounded by an inevitable sea of racial injustice.
Until yesterday.
I hope that Jackson has faith renewed - and an understanding that never is the time to emulate the oppressive powers that were. I hope that Jackson saw a sea of faces of all colors voting in mass for a man of his color - and to many, color did not matter.
Not an abstract faith - but a practical faith that good people of all kinds can do the right thing and move beyond racial, gender, religious, and ethnic lines.
The ministers of reverse hate - that a white, racist America does not care, that what was will forever be - today you are proven wrong - and I am sure you were never happier being so wrong.
My generation is post-racial - we have spoken.
-R
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