The Aerie
I wondered why I was coming to work today. Yes, I need the money, but I've been working butt off, too, and could use the time off. Still, there has been no shortage of security brushfires leading up to Monday's imminent launch of my client's first international store in Mexico. So I headed in, despite my better judgment I think.
Murphy's Law being what it is, of course my presence here was almost entirely unnecessary, except I suppose for a little paperwork that I have processed. Then I happened to glance at my webcam from Svalbard, a Finnish Norwegian island north of the Arctic circle which will be familiar to readers of the Pullman "Dark Materials" novels. The view was too dark for the camera to make out colors, but the motion made it clear.
An aurora borealis.
I can't imagine any other situations other than sitting at work with my webcams running that would have led me to observe this celestial phenomenon. Therefore, I consider this ample evidence that the whole reason I came in to work today was so that I could be reminded of how lucky I am sometimes.
I went to a Catholic high school in Queens through third grade, so I was raised with black and white friends all around. Two of my third grade friends were Steven Black and Kenneth Brown.
Then we moved to a white suburb in New Jersey, mostly because my brother was special needs and Queens had no resources for him. The nuns told my parents to move to a wealthy suburb where he could get the attention he needed.
After four years in New Jersey my paternal grandmother died, and my mother wanted to return home to her native Minnesota. So we packed up for the trip, and for old times sake we went on one last visit to Queens.
Four years in white suburbia had taken their toll. Everyone that I had told of my origins had loked at me aghast: you lived in Queens? Were you ever mugged?
We pulled up in front of our old church, and there were CROWDS of black people going in to it. In fact we were about the only whites visible.
I climbed out of the car in terror. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Crowds of strange black people surrounded us. And one of them... one of them was approaching me!
"Bobby? Bobby, is that you?"
It was like the shattering of a blurry glass wall. In an instant the terrifying black person had revealed himself to be Steven Black, my old friend from third grade. The phrase "the scales fell from my eyes" fits perfectly.
I spent the rest of the Mass exchanging goofy faces with Steven across the pews of the church.
I have never seen him again since that day, but I have always remembered the lesson I learned about the power of prejudicial fear.
The election of Barack Obama culminates what I have observed for years as the diminishing value of race in our social relationships. In the 1990's the inroads of race had already reached the most trivial tributaries with the first black Vulcan on Star Trek Voyager. And in the 2000's I saw race emerging as a source of honest humor - not racial slurs, but racial camaraderie, people feeling comfortable making jokes based on race that were not put downs. On "Scrubs" the white protagonist hugged his black friend, who insisted "Call me your brown bear." During the Seventies and Eighties they would still have been friends, but the word "brown" would have been carefully omitted.
So I was gratified but not terribly surprised when race in this campaign seemed, honestly, ridiculous, and those who employed racist codes like "uppity" were viewed by all sides as out of touch and unhelpful. Religious bigotry was a bigger issue than racial bigotry in this campaign.
And of course there is the candidate to consider. Obama is so obviously smarter, more thoughtful, and more eloquent than most of us that the content of his character easily persuaded most Americans of his suitability for office.
But there's still work to do. The racists and the simply stupid among us are already stating that no black person anywhere can ever claim to have been impacted by racism again. As if one man's exceptional achievement overturns centuries of cultural bigotry. One might as well claim that when Sir Edmund Hilary conquered Everest, everyone could begin using the summit for picnics.
It's a relief to have Obama as our president elect. After eight long years, I finally have some hope that the person running this nation might actually have its best interests at heart. Having an drunken, narcissistic boob for a president was never fun, and got old really fast. A constitutional scholar in the White House? That's change I can believe in.