My President is Black

I just wanted to take a little time to reflect on what a major deal it is that a person of mixed race (or anything other than pure whitey) is our president.  I feel like there are a lot of people out there kind of overlooking the fact that this is an enormous step forward, mostly because they want to deny that racism still exists other than in the context of the KKK or other blatantly prejudiced organizations.  It's out there people, it's in your school, at your work, on your television, in your home, in your face.  The problem is, it's in what people view as innocuous forms, so they see no harm in it, it's not overtly aggressive or hateful, it may not even be overtly racist.  Honestly, I was afraid that Obama's being African-American, or even more horrifyingly suspect Muslim, would stop many people from voting for the most intelligent, well-meaning, and (let's just say it) dead sexy candidate we've had in, well, American history.  Ask anyone who was around for it, they haven't seen this type of enthusiasm over a new president taking office since John Kennedy, and personally I think Obama is much handsomer.  I was afraid, though, that people would not be able to see past the color of his skin, and they wouldn't vote for him because of it.  And I was afraid to watch the inauguration.  I did, but with my eyes averted the whole time, because I was afraid some psycho or group of psychos would set off a bomb or something before he had the chance to take the oath of office.  "A colored in the white house? Not on my watch."  And I'm sure there were plenty of assholes sitting at home thinking this, thankfully they couldn't get it together enough to do anything about it, probably because they had to make it to a rally about how the Mexicans are taking all our jobs and how they're sick of having to pay for everyone's life through the liberal government's entitlement programs.  This is an enormous step.   Like the biggest thing to happen since the end of segregation.  You could even say that it's the last place to be de-segregated, the white house that is.  I knew it would happen someday, but I didn't expect it to happen in my time.  A black man in the white house and he's not waiting on anyone?!  It's the first time in my life I can say I'm proud to be an American.  Even though we still have a long way to go (like to the moon and back) before we can say we're doing the right thing, this is a good start.