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What Obama Means for My Son

One father's journey through a racially-charged election

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 1, 2008 11:45 AM CDT

(Newser) – Barack Obama looks poised to win the presidency, and that would mean a lot for Gary Younge’s infant son. Younge wasn’t always sure it would, the Brooklyn resident writes in the Guardian. "It wasn't that I didn't understand the symbolic importance of his bid. I just did not want to mistake it for substance." His African-American wife had a different take. “My dad grew up being told a black person couldn’t be a pilot,” she said. “My son is growing up knowing that a black person can be president.”

Younge’s own thinking soon evolved, “not so much because of the man, but the moment.” Obama has become an important symbol, his candidacy a “teachable moment” about racism. McCain “misread white America’s appetite for divisive racial rhetoric and overestimated its fear of the other.” This doesn’t prove Younge’s son can necessarily be whatever he wants—"I am his father, and it's my responsibility to teach him that." It proves that white people won’t necessarily stop him.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (3)]

Two young girls wait at a late night rally to hear Barack Obama in Boston, Monday, Feb. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

A boy looks at a photo of Barack Obama, during his speech at the Victory Column in Berlin, Thursday, July 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A young boy struggles to hold up a sign for Barack Obama as he campaigns during a town hall meeting in Beaufort, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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To express such scepticism before many Obama supporters was to be accused of cynicism. The true believers do not just want you to drink the Kool Aid. They demand that you chug it. - Gary Younge

Not every historic first changes the course of history. Changing our understanding of what is possible doesn't, in itself, create new possibilities. - Gary Younge

If there is promise in here for my son, it is not so much that he is capable of doing anything he wants, but that white people won't necessarily stop him. - Gary Younge

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

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What Obama Means for My Son