I was late to work today because I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the crowds swirling around the Mall. It seemed to take forever between Election Day and today, but at the same time I can’t believe it’s here already.
Every time I see an interview with a black American schoolkid talking about what this new president means to them, my heart swells. And even though I’m white and my kid will be white, this is not just abstract to me. AS will hopefully be having a child someday, and she is (and our child will be) black. She used to talk about how she was sometimes terrified she’d have a boy, given how every black man and boy she’d ever been in contact with had experienced some negative reactions from strangers and authorities, even if they were the most upright, respectable person possible.
It’s not like that’s gone away. Late last year, after the election I must add, her model-citizen, honors-college-student cousin was detained for three days in a Georgia prison on suspicion of shoplifting a pair of socks. (He didn’t, by the way.) He was not allowed a phone call, a lawyer or any other contact with the outside world during this period. Having a black president is not going to immediately rehabilitate every corrupt, racist authority figure we have.
But it is going to mean that our child is going to grow up without ever having that demoralizing realization that AS’s stepfather copped to, and probably 99.9% of black Americans had at some point in their upbringing: “They say I could be anything, but it’s not true. I could never be president.”
Happy Inauguration Day to new parents and prospective parents! You may be bringing your children into a better America than I ever thought possible.
