In light of Barack Obama’s victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, many people are considering what his election might mean for race relations in America. Reflections from several African-American Baptist ministers suggest that although they see Obama’s election as an important moment, it must be just one step on a longer road toward racial reconciliation.
“The election of Barack is the beginning of a movement toward the unification of a nation and the pulling down of religious, political and social divides that have poisoned the very fabric of our nation,” said William Buchanan, pastor of Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church in Nashville, Tenn.
“Emotion coursed through my being at the announcement that Barack Obama had become the new president-elect of the United States,” Buchanan told EthicsDaily.com. “The moment was surreal for me, a 61-year-old African-American, who, as a young man in Georgia, witnessed the displacement of my family because of my father’s civic involvement in voter registration for the ”˜Negro.’”
I can certainly understand the elation about the election of the son of a Kenyan to the Presidency. I think, however, that we are near the end of the transformation of our nation on race rather than at the beginning.
Now that a black man has been elected president of the greatest nation on earth, I don’t want to hear any more bleeding hearts about their victimhood. They now need to stand on their own two feet and their own merits and truly blend into a common unity.
athanaius,
My christian brother, I believe blacks have always stood on their own two feet. In some ways, their survival and witness in the New World is one of the greatest testimonies of the human spirit in our history. Read Bonhoeffer’s description of that (black american) spirit, it is very insightful and demonstrates the ability to read history with the eyes of faith.
Pax,
Fr. Edward
Fr. Edward,
Those of us who have been following the news for the past several decades knows that there are those in the black community that thrive in fomenting racial conflict, people who have built their careers in seeing racisim behind every corner. the Rev.s Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton come to mind.
We have also seen Americans of African descent derided and put down when they call for people of their own race to take personal responsibility for their own situation. Bill Cosby comes to mind.
We have also seen successful Americans of African heritage drided and put down because they have been successful, being called ‘sell-outs’ and ‘Uncle Toms’, andb eing accused of ‘playing the White Man’s Game’ or ‘forgetting their roots’.
Yes, so now it will be interesting to see the reactions of these groups of people now that BHO has been elected president, and what he will expect of THEM.
In His Peace
Jim Elliott
Florida
Jim,
I hear you and agree.
Pax,
Edward
Is it not an interesting historical irony that the first black to be elected POTUS is only 6.25% Negro and 0% descended from any victims of American slavery?
6.25%?
Barak Obama self identifies a black man with a white mother, which is historically correct in our country. Most blacks in this country actually are the descendents of mixed race “encounters”. Geneticist claim that most Black Americans have 22 white ancestors out of 128. So in reality, Black Ameicans are the english version of spanish speaking Puerto Ricans. We (Americans) wrongly use a racial term (Black) to describe what is in fact a mutiracial American ethnic group. So historically speaking, black refers to a non- white person of african descent. That is why it would be wrong to talk about how black genetically someone is. It’s wrong biologically, race is a social construct, and culturally it’s wrong, because the catergory negro was greated based on the assumption that one could be pure white. So black became the term used for anyone who was not fully white of African descent.
Pax,
Edward
Sorry about the grammatical errors above
Pax,
Edward
Re #7. The genealogies I have seen show that his father was 1/8 “black” (= Negro) and 7/8 African Arab. Hence “African-American” is correct and perhaps even a common meaning of “black”, as discussed by Boniface.
#10 Bill Matz, I’ve seen this before, and I am still confused by it. What is an “African Arab?” It is possible that whoever has produced this genealogy means that his ancestors were of one of the Kenyan tribes but were Muslim converts who were therefore Arabized culturally. They would be the same stock genetically as their non-Muslim neighbors. “African Arab” sounds to me like a religious affinity group rather than a racial/tribal identity. The latter would be Luo (Obama’s group), Kikuyu, etc.
None of this has anything to do with his qualifications to be President, of course, but I like to see correct terminology used if the subject is discussed.
Katherine, I think that is backwards. Arab is an ethnicity, not a religion. E.g. there are many Christian Arabs. My understanding is that African Arabs are Arabs who moved to Africa, like European Americans.