The Change That Matters Most
wny Obama's run means more than his victory
2008-11-04
By Brian Gilmore

After all the speeches, and the political punditry, the continued harping about “change,” but most importantly, the historical relevance of this election as a potential “post-racial” moment, it really is about three people: my daughters.

In fact, when Barack Obama became a viable candidate, won the Democratic nomination, and began to demonstrate to the world that he could hold his own in all respects against John McCain, I had my victory whether he wins or loses. My friends and colleagues didn’t understand it when I said it either but the symbolic nature of the election had been captured for me. It overwhelmed anything else about the election.

My daughters, Adanya – 9, Lirit – 6, and Pannonica – 2, began to say his name when he won the nomination and began talking about him regularly. They would see his picture and ask questions. Lirit saw his name on our phone (caller ID recording his campaign call for volunteers) and insisted that we call him back. When I said that it wasn’t necessary for us to call him back, it was as if I had thrown out all her toys and clothes.

Adanya and Lirit especially understand the importance of the moment. They see he is a person of African descent like them, and they see that he is on top of the world win or lose. He has done something that was unthinkable only a few years ago and he has done it well. The policies he implements and how successful he is as a President are not as important as the fact that these young black girls have seen the world shift. Obama’s rise is, in fact, a cataclysmic event.

This is not to assert that they didn’t believe in themselves prior to his rise. They did. However, due to the fact that they are young and just coming up in the world, this is the world that they know. Their America is post-racial whether we adults like it or not. They are too young to think that the world should be any different and this is what people have to understand.

My parents always instilled in their four children that we could rise to the top as well. But, all of us then lived lives where we saw that certain obstacles were being thrown in our way and despite our best efforts, we still might not always be able to overcome history and institutional barriers placed in our paths. We all succeeded, we never doubted ourselves, but the world is still the world to us, a place often bogged down, at least in the America we came to know, by an embarrassing racial history that was alive and well and a taboo subject of conversation or serious study by the masses.

Not so for my three daughters.

They will never see the world or the country any other way now. No one can tell them that things should be any different. Anyone of any race or nationality in the United States black person can able to be President of the United States is what they will believe because they saw it happen.

When I was a child, the biggest events from a black perspective were things like Thurgood Marshall becoming the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court and Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record. These were encouraging moments that were followed by accomplishment after accomplishment that led up to now.

But, all of us know, the rise of Barack Obama, especially if he wins, is a Jackie Robinson moment. It is huge. My father, who talked all the time about the Robinson moment as I grew up and how it changed everything, probably would be astonished with the rise of Obama were he here to witness it. He always believed that such a moment were possible but he did not dwell on its’ non-occurrence. Now, here we are.

So, on the night of November 4, I will be relaxed. The outcome concerns me politically but personally, I have claimed the victory. Every time one of my daughters says “Obama,” I know I have won. They will remember this forever.

I am also sure that there are millions of other children just like my daughters, of all races, religions, and nationalities, across the world, that are witnessing this moment too and this tells me more than anything that the world will never, ever again be what it was before this moment arrived. The world, as we knew it, whether we like it or not, has passed away, and it is for the better.

Brian Gilmore is a public interest lawyer and a columnist with the Progressive Media Project in Washington, D.C.