We have, 4 decades after his passing, arrived at the eve of the 44th Presidential Inauguration. This election has struck many commentators as historic for a reason that should, in a society that truly had "transcended race", have been the least important of all; our president is Black. I do not intend to downplay the significance of Obama's successful challenge to years of deeply-ingrained institutional racism, but does this really mean, as some have implied, that our society is fundamentally a more tolerant place?
It has been noted that Obama is actually the son of a Kenyan and a white woman, as if his biracial status renders his Blackness less legitimate. This is absurd, as society has long constructed race upon the terms of the "one drop rule" and a variety of intangibles indicating a cultural identification, not on the specifics of where or to whom someone is born. But his skin has saddled him with the designation "Black," and there is no reason to believe that he is seen otherwise.
Barack Obama himself has said that it is foolish to believe that we can get past the issues of racism in one election cycle. And yet, the aura of a "post-racial" identity surrounds him. Some suggest that he has positioned himself carefully to be inoffensive to white sensibilities, now made into a "transcendent" figure only by the erasure of what his race might signify about his goals or politics, this difference disappearing via an apparent adoption of the dominant culture.
Through Obama, we can nevertheless see a myriad of paths forward, though it remains to be seen if he or those who come after him will take them. Much has been made of his promise to eliminate the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, even after it was revealed in late November that he would not actually do so until as late as 2010, depending on his interaction with the Pentagon and military leaders. The embarrassing firing of many crucial personnel whose orientation was revealed, such as a number of Arabic translators, has shown how regressive and foolish the policy can be. But this seems like a minor concession from someone who gave an important role in his inauguration to the notoriously homophobic Rick Warren.
The kind of virulent slander that Warren spreads should be unacceptable in a reasonable society. Every effort to prove that homosexuality is not associated with pedophilia or the cause of the imminent downfall of society seems to be undone with such people close to the President's ear. Kanye West, in his characteristic irreverence and hubris, declared on national television that George Bush didn't care about Black people. Will it now be necessary to declare that Barack Obama doesn't care about gays?
Obama has not really been disingenuous about his rejection of gay marriage, acknowledging that LGBT people must have rights, but supporting the rhetoric of civil unions rather than a fuller acknowledgment of their legal and social standing. In turn, the passage of Proposition 8 has been seen as a proof that African-Americans are incapable of the tolerance that they have received from the white mainstream, embodied in the figure of Obama. But the widely-quoted "70%" figure from the CNN exit poll has been unproblematically perpetuated, despite a recent study that demonstrated that no more than 59% of Black Californians could have supported the ban.
The salient characteristic in determining who voted for the proposition, as revealed by the study, was attendance at religious services. But I do not wish to suggest that religion was in any way responsible. Ultimately, this intolerance is only a reflection of the larger societal discourse surrounding LGBT-identified people. Many aspects of church dogma are adaptable to the exigencies of the time, so only the essential tenets of a religion (hopefully, ones of love and understanding) should be held as immutable doctrines.
If we learn anything from this example, it is that people are not monoliths; they think, act, and vote independently, and their views are not bound to one aspect of their identity. One can hope that, despite Obama's expressed beliefs about the nature of marriage and the rights that people can have, his understanding will grow to encompass that oft-marginalized portion of society.
The battle to ensure that all people have equal rights has seen some victories, but it is far from over. As we go further into the 21st century, it seems appalling that society has not yet accepted all of its members and comprehended the spectrum of normal human diversity. One can be hopeful that the new president will assume the mantle of civil rights that many have envisioned for him, but the elimination of intolerance from our understandings of the world must take place on the ground, one conversation at a time.
