[November 4th. 11:46 pm. CNN's live coverage of election night 2008]





Wolf Blitzer: Welcome to a historic night of election coverage here on CNN. We've just heard John McCain's formal concession speech, and in a moment we'll go to Barack Obama headquarters to hear from our President-elect. In fact, I'm getting word that Mr. Obama is on his way out now; Let's hear from our next United States President.

[Cut to Obama HQ]


Fellow Americans! Thank you... Thank You... Please; Thank you all so much for your support. Your hope in progress has made tonight a prime example of change we can believe in. I must say, your faith in me as a leader has been exceptional, but I need to reveal one thing that you may not know...




















[I wake up in a cold sweat]

Now, it's doubtful that if Obama wins, he'll beat up Joe Biden and join some Republican Alliance. It's also doubtful that either Obama or (hopefully not) McCain will dramatically change anything about how the country is run. Hopefully we can recover from these economic crises and stop fighting losing wars, but only time will tell.





I did vote though. And it felt kinda good.

Black or Red: Which is more hated?

Barack Obama is a Socialist. At least that's what some people want you to think.

What does it mean when people are more concerned about having a "socialist" president than a black president? Progress in terms of racial prejudice? Eh... I think not.

It almost happened...

So this afternoon I was walking home with a girl I'm in class with and who happens to live right around the corner from me. We were having a pleasant conversation about how things are going so far. At one point, our talk shifted to the half-joking subject of our common concerns of "why did this school accept me? Did they send the letter by mistake?" (that's probably a subject I'll go into another time) Anyway, as we neared our respective houses, the conversation went something like this:

Me: I really kinda feel like they checked the wrong box and now they're thinking "damn! he actually accepted our offer." Seriously, I'm wondering why I'm here instead of somebody else.
Her: Well, they probably needed somebody... ... female. But, actually, there's a lot of girls here.
Me: haha... Yea I don't know. Well i'm doing well so far so I guess they made the right choice.
(laughter)


So my thought is, she was going to say "black" but decided not to, leading to that long pause. Maybe i'm being paranoid. It's possible that she was going to say it jokingly but realized she didn't know me that well and racial jokes might not go over with me. Looking back on it, I might have just laughed if she said it. (part of that is the fact that i'm pretty sure i'm here at least in part because i'm black) It's also possible though, that she's anti-affirmative action and bitterly thinks I'm underqualified to be here. I think this is unlikely, as she seems like a really nice person and because almost everyone i've met here is quite liberal (though race tends to make people think in funny ways).

Whatever though. I laughed off what I perceived as a potential misstep, and I think I would have laughed it off if she had said what I thought she was going to say.


I just thought I'd share my first mildly uncomfortable moment here as a result of issues of color.