Around 10.20ish pm I noticed I had voicemail, so decided to check it-- wasn't really expecting any sorts of calls tonight, of all nights-- and there was a loudly, tipsily enthusiastic message from
rhiannon76... something about:
-a call
-a concession
-Indiana 50/49 in favor of Sen. Obama
and time kinda stopped. I paused, dry of mouth and shaky of hand, and punched "1" to listen to the message again.
Yep.
I called her back on my way out to the lobby, because I could not believe it until she said it. And when she
had said it, clear as a bell, my legs went out from under me and all I could say was, "I can't believe it oh my fucking Gods you're serious" as I blubbered into the phone.
After getting the skinny, I hung up and tried to compose myself, and she called right back with more news of Indiana, which is when
seasquirt06 walked in on her own OMFG PRESIDENT OBAMA phone call, and I lost it again as we jumped up and down.
I don't know if I have words to express how exactly big a fucking deal this is. So much has been said over the entirety of the presidential campaign re: race, and how black folks are this huge monolith who only care about the race of a candidate, as though we're still the ignorant, savage children so many white Americans think we are, overtly or behind closed doors. I thought, and still do think, that that sentiment ignores the institutional race privilege that, to this day, our country refuses to address-- for how many times has anyone bothered to talk about white political candidates, and the votes they garner, in the same way? I'll bet a cheesecake that nowhere near the same levels of intensity and "concern" about white voters having a face that reflects them have been on display.
There are those who will find fault with the jubilation in some segments of Black America; certainly, those who will and have found fault with our President-elect. I can understand, even though I neither sympathise nor agree, even having my own concerns about the man. What I can tell, what I
felt, is that something loosened in me tonight at the sounds and images of an event I did not expect to see at this point in my life, something so large I'd ceased to see or acknowledge it.
President Obama, you've quite the pile of shit to shovel, sir. I wish you well.