Barack Obama’s narrow victory over McCain among North Carolina voters was just as significant and historical as his election. In fact, North Carolina is bringing forward its own history.
Has this “change” that America has waited for shown the progress in a region that hasn’t forgotten or forgiven its past?
A past of unmistakable prejudice and hate, whose openness of opposition has exemplified how the region felt while its northern counterparts hid within its shadows?
Obama’s campaign and eventual election has left some White Americans feeling confused and frustrated about the black man who was running for the presidency of the United States.
Yet, blacks in support of Obama expressed hints of pessimism, asking “Can he really do it? Can he really win in a place where color has mattered for so long?”
A Newsweek article published Aug.11, stated, “The sense of opportunity [for blacks], of dreams tantalizing close to fulfillment, is overwhelming. But so is the skepticism, the knowledge deep within one’s bones of the likelihood, if not the inevitability, of disappointment. Obama couldn’t win, not in the South.”
I believe this was the sentiment of American’s across the country.
I have been afforded many opportunities most have not, or do not get. But I always felt that anything was possible for those who were patient and worked hard.
I am proud to see African Americans succeed and accomplish goals which were once unattainable.
A black man becoming president is one of those goals. I would always say, “Oh, it might happen one day,” but it was with great uncertainty.
However, as the South and society in general are becoming more diversified, maybe [the word that will forever live in the South] politics and the way of life will progressively change.
Now that President-elect Obama has won, I am hopeful America as a whole will latch onto his ideals of hope and change.
And as Obama has stated, the changes don’t only start with him. They start when all of us hold ourselves accountable for the changes we want to see.