Changing While We Slept

This week saw what can only be described as an epic moment in American history: Barack Obama was elected to become the 44th President of the United States! This is so huge for so many reasons, and I could elaborate on all of them; but what holds my attention most closely is the realization that our country is finally changing.

Like some morbid metamorphosis that only Kafka could appreciate, America has been slowly transforming into a new nation, a process that has been occurring while many in the country slept. We are truly on our way toward becoming a "more perfect Union", a place where we are simply Americans-sans ethnic-prefixes. I know that may seem a bit outlandish to say at this point, as it is still too early to tell how the new President-elect will prove himself; but I cannot stop thinking that this is merely a sign of what has already been taking place among us. And what's been taking place among us is that people are beginning to judge one another based on the "content of their character" and not "the color of their skin", just as Dr. King once dreamed. That dream is steadily proving to be prophetic, and taking place.

I think that this can be especially seen in the world most of us geeks live in. At one point in time, I might have been referred to as a Black-blogger, or an African-American Gamer, and I would have been judged based on that scale. As it now stands (at least as far as I can tell), my friends simply call me a blogger, a geek, or a gamer. They don't even feel the need to acknowledge my blackness, since that has nothing to do with who I am...but only with what I look like. And I think this idea has spread to the world of Politics. People no longer seemed to care about Obama's skin color or heritage. At least they chose not to make that their central focus. What they cared about more was his policies and his stance on certain issues. We deemed him the most fit and the most apt to be able to lead this nation into a new era of greatness...not because we needed a Black Man for the job; but because he was the Right Man for the job!

Certainly, there are still some people who can't see past someone's ethnicity. Thankfully, these are swiftly becoming a dying breed. I mean, as the world shifts to doing more socially centered things in cyberspace, where the only colors come in bits and pixels...how viable is prejudice there? An email, text message or tweet have no ethnic background to deal with. You just get text and graphics. Thus, people are getting more used to the idea of simply dealing with each individual as an individual, and not as a pre-conceived stereotype that fits everyone like a glove. Gloves belong to Michael Jackson or O.J. Simpson, not in one's mind!

So, while some Americans continue to sleep and dream of the "America that Was", let us who are awake look ahead to the "America Which Will Be". And I think we have just the President to help lead the way!