Africa’s First Family: Obama Wins New York World Series
The last stop on the 2 line in Manhattan is Wall Street, a neighbourhood that is in desperate need of “hope” and “change” and a “yes, we can” attitude. As the train rumbles into Brooklyn, white passengers disembark in the upscale neighbourhoods of Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope. By the time it reaches my stop, at Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum, the white exodus is almost complete save for perhaps a few white students who have opted for the cheaper rents of Crown Heights.
As a white passenger it is hard not to look at the faces of your fellow black commuters – students and workers, mothers and fathers – and wonder what it means for them and their children that after so many generations of inequality and oppression, a black man is headed for the White House? How would they have felt if, as many had quietly feared, white voters had deserted the black candidate in the privacy of the polling booth? Does it mean anything to them that more white men and women voted for Barack Obama in 2008 than John Kerry in 2004?
After exiting the train I make my way down Washington Avenue, a dishevelled thoroughfare lined with shabby bodegas and peppered with numerous barber shops and hair braiding salons, Caribbean restaurants and a check cashing office. The weather is still mild enough for people to continue the summer habit of congregating on the pavement, many sitting on fold out chairs and engaged in animated conversation.
Posted: 16th, November 2008 | In: Key Posts Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
