For many, having the nation’s first black president is a tremendous accomplishment, but some will grumble under their breath for the next four years.
Those grumblers include every single member of my family.
Having been born into a family that bleeds only red, sees only red and believes that red is right, has been difficult. Pardon my pun, but I am so blue you can see it in my eyes. For the past two years and most of my adult life, I have argued, debated, researched and proven points to family members across several states who still refuse to acknowledge some people just don’t share the same opinion as they do.
I am one of the first out of the five daughters in my family to continue my education into college, and I will be the first to graduate in my entire family. So, educationally speaking, it is understandable that my elders are set in their ways, as older folks tend to be, but my closed-minded relatives baffle me. How can I be from the same flesh and blood as them, but have such extremely different political views?
I am not alone; we all have family members who chose not to vote because they felt there was no need. Some said they wouldn’t do it because they did not like the candidates or what they stood for. Then you have the ones that only vote by skin color. Each one of us has a relative who has chosen to remain uneducated in the same politics that are so important to their every day life; perhaps now they will understand the importance of educating themselves on the things that matter most.
For me, this was the perfect opportunity to point out to my loved ones that just a little over 50 years ago, we couldn’t even sit and eat a meal in a restaurant with a black person or go to the same schools. Segregation and publicly-endorsed racism were commonplace, and the youth of those times, perhaps our own mothers and fathers, eventually experienced the changes that allowed integration in the schools and public places. Today we mingle, marry and work with every color in the rainbow, but there are still people who don’t support the fact that a beautifully minded man of color will be in the white house.
Race should not be an issue from any angle in any situation, any longer. We have come so far in such a short period of time that the idea of ill-feeling toward any person is ignorant of the fact that every human being is just that – human. We are the same inside and out; we all bleed, feel, love and laugh in the same way. Every U.S. citizen has fought at one point or another for the rights we cherish – men, women, black, white, immigrants and non-immigrants, disabled and non-disabled, religious and non-religious.
Everyone has endured a struggle that should encourage a bond between all of mankind, not just here in the U.S., but worldwide as well. We are all made alike. Why do we fight so hard against one another?
For the majority of us, those times have changed, thankfully. As for me, this is my chance to stick my thumb up and say, "Way to go, Obama!"
MousaviDin, a communication junior, can be reached via [email protected]
