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November 21, 2008

The REAL Transformation

didn't vote for Obama (or McCain, for that matter) and I'm concerned that he may be a more radical socialist than he appears. (But, hell, in the last 20 years, Republican presidents have institutionalized more socialism than Democratic presidents.)

But there is no denying that some real transformations resulting from this election are worthwhile. And John McWhorter specifices the three big ones brilliantly in this Forbes opinion piece.

Here's the first one:

The studious black teen will no longer be tarred as "thinking he's white."

This has been a sad aspect of growing up nerdy for black students since the mid-'60s, when school integration left black students amid wary and often nasty white students. A natural response was a sense of school as the province of the other, i.e. "white."

Since then, black peers have passed this notion down the generations. For decades, there have been innumerable reports of black students faced with a choice between hitting the books and having black friends.

From now on, however, there is a ready riposte to being tarred as "acting white" for liking school: "Is Barack Obama white?"

It's the perfect smackdown—not even the most hardened black teen will disown the heroism of the first black president, in all of his nerdiness.

In the late '60s, black people who had been in middle school a few years before noticed that their siblings were suddenly being called "white" for liking school. Just watch: in 10 years, black people suffering this treatment now will notice that their younger siblings and cousins are not—and Barack Obama will be the reason.

Read the rest.

Posted by witnit at November 21, 2008 3:49 PM

Comments

Posted by: David Bowman at February 13, 2009 2:11 PM