Democracy in Black-Face - The End or Just the Beginning?

I have tears slowly forming in my eyes as I start to write this, for today is a truly a landmark in terms of American humanity.

To begin I must set the stage for us in terms of where we were, and as well as where we are now. As most of you know politics and race have always been a rather polarizing and at best a mere charged issue. More realistically it has been an issue written in history books with blood and violence. A kind of fierce aggression that is unique in nature as being simultaneously passive-aggressive and openly confrontational.

Moments of the Past...

The Civil War; The Jim Crow laws; Harriet Tubman; Rosa Parks; General Colin Powell; The Emancipation Proclamation; Malcom X; Martin Luther King Jr.; The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the right to vote and banned discrimination in public facilities); Voting Rights Act of 1965 (sent federal commisioners to South to register blacks and demanded for the government to suspend literacy tests); Thurgood Marshall (first supreme court justice in 1967);
and more... (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_22_100/ai_80162969)

The above are just a smattering of moments in history where race and politics collided. What kinds of emotions are evoked when you read the different phrases, names or issues. Many times these encounters were violent and caused great national unrest. Many times these two factors threaten to invalidate the sovereignty of the US such as the seceding of southern states in the Civil War. These past historical events are integral in understanding the importance and powerful precipitous that American dangles from now.

Present political race relations...

Tonight for the first time in history a Black American, Barack Obama, has clinched the first ever nomination for president of a major political party as a Black American. In an astounding and unexpected triumph by even the most optimistic of his supporters Senator Obama surpassed the 2118 delegat mark need to secure the democratic nomination for president and left his white competitor without the possibility of doing the same.

Not only is this a great social triumph for the black community but it is an even greater political victory for race relations in America. This man has proved at least one thing for minorities. He has proved that progress is being made and has been made. In 1964 when President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act that made it possible for blacks to vote, I doubt very many people ever thought of their new ability or rights to afford them one day to not only vote but vote for a black man. A black man that is skilled in public policy, a black man that is not native to America by birthright, A black man that doesn't resent the white man but applauds him (John McCain). The events of tonight don't carry the message that blacks can be president of the US, while many optimists and pundits will say that on TV, I'm sorry but we aren't there yet. Tonight does definitively guarantee an African American individual that he or she can no longer be viewed as an anomaly in politics. The most compelling statement that I believe epitomizes that was mentioned by a CNN contributor tonight. "This is the final nail in the coffin of the 'separate but equal' of the Jim Crow Laws". Meaning that the Jim Crow laws politically were a mockery to assuage the concerns of black Americans who justifiably felt discriminated against. They segregated blacks and whites and then gave the blacks the status of "equal" with whites (how cold and disingenuous), which history accounts was never really accurate.

Now it is shown by Obama's nomination that blacks can compete with whites for the highest public office in the land and are truly equal in competition and their race does not separate them. Its amazing that American finally has further humanized the black American in American politics. It appears that we are starting to take the black-face off of American democracy. Democracy is beginning to be defined in practice as it claims to be by ideological definition.

Not Yet!?

While many are celebrating and enjoying this time in American history, especially Black democrats, it appears to me this period of celebration may come to a quick and sombering end. For the first time in history a powerful, older, Republican white man will face-off with a young, energetic and optimistic Democratic black man. My thought in this is that between now and November we may experience the most racially charged political atmosphere in American history. Ironically all of this progress as legitimate as it may be will certainly be tested in these next 5 months as to how committed and unbiased the American people are with regards to equality and humanity.

I think its ironic that all of this occurs during the week of the 10th anniversary of the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper TX by three white supremacists not much more than 100 miles from me as I write. Yes, we are reminded of the horrors and gross injustices of the past, but more importantly as Senator Obama testifies to, there is a reality of progress in American race relations as the black-face is peeled off of the face of democracy and thrusts her on stage to perform with greater purity than ever before.

May the things of God such as Justice, love for ALL mankind, worth and value of God's creation, and Hope for the Oppressed and Impoverished be illuminated. May we be invested in these things so that God may be Glorified and His people thoroughly satisfied in a faith that doesn't just look churchy or religious but life giving, and takes the life of Christ and his people seriously.