Thoughts On Race

Our new president is already rocking my world with his quiet resolve: closing Guantanamo- CHECK! Unconscionable lobbying practices off the table-CHECK! He somehow manages to seem at once so sure, serene AND self-effacing, a combination I personally adore in a human being but certainly never expected to see in any PRESIDENT of ours. I am still pinching myself over this whole amazing turn of events. I by no means will wear the rose-colored glasses for too long, but must bask in the afterglow as long as I can get away with it. Particularly in the liberal bastion where I live, everyone was walking on air Tuesday. As we witnessed the emotion of the crowds on the National Mall,the inauguration ceremony itself, and of course his brave and riveting speech, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to swell with pride and awe. I am also just so happy for all the black people! I went to elementary school in Berkley in the early '70's where I was fortunate to have had a thorough,unsparing year-long Black Studies section as part of my required curriculum in fourth grade. Naturally, about half my classmates were black, and I had several close black friends, and even though sadly I never lived in such a racially diverse community after that, I am proud that time profoundly help shape the me I turned out to be. As great as I hope Obama turns out to be as a president, I mostly am just so moved that America pulled this off. The faces of the people on television on Tuesday just slayed me.
I have to remind myself all the time that because of where I live, how relatively insulated I am from the racial tension that is still sadly commonplace in our society. I was struck today, while many of us are still in the throes of our Obama-reverie, as I gassed up my car and encountered a hulking sad-sack of a guy dressed in a camo sweatshirt and grimy sagging jeans inside the mini-mart giving a hearty dose of shit to the middle eastern clerk. I initially only observed that he was loudly rude and snippy with the clerk, and shrugged it off to your everyday run-of-the-mill grumpy bad vibes that many folks seem to feel entitled to dole out to strangers at will these days.
But when I went outside to pump my gas I overheard him (or I should say, plain-old heard, as he was not making an effort to conceal his rancor) saying, "god-damned bastard, doesn't even speak English!...grrr, mrrrmm, fucking people come to this country...rar, rar, rar"... you get the picture. Call me naive, but I thought it was weird particularly because the clerk's English was actually exemplary, contrary to what is often encountered in these instances. (Also, it's actually unusual to come across middle eastern people where I live.) But of course I realized that's not the point at all when Camo McAsshole and I both ended up back inside the store at the same time, and there was actually then a BLACK guy in there too, which you REALLY hardly ever see around here! If it hadn't been so tense, it would have been funny. Camo was back at it; continuing to hassle the clerk while the black dude stood a safe distance away wearing an uncomfortable disbelieving expression. I just never see shit like this. Blew my mind. Ironically, right after that, I was going to see the film "Gran Torino" which underscores so especially poignantly the race/ethnicity/ immigration issue in this country. It was hard to watch, but such a beautifully rendered message. What an interesting day for me to have during this historic week in which we inaugurated the first African-American president and some of the wounds of the past seem to have a chance at healing.
I really don't get it; why can't we all just get along?