Blog.WBRU

Update: Listen to George Mesthos’ report for the Pulse on the Obama election:

The Pulse airs Sundays at 10 AM during the 360° Black Experience in Sound.
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History was made Tuesday night when the United States elected its first African-American president.

Barack Obama’s victory in the presidential election means more than just an African-American in the Oval Office. His win showed the country that race is no longer the barrier it once was, even as little as a generation ago.

Obama’s campaign was notable not only because he is black, but also because of his age (47) and the energy his campaign was able to inspire, especially with young voters.

His campaign inspired black voters to come out in record numbers. African-Americans made up about 12 or 13 percent of the total vote, a figure in line with their demographic proportions in the population as a whole. 95 percent of those votes were for Obama.

Joe Almeida, a member of Rhode Island’s Minority Legislative Caucus and a Providence representative in the General Assembly, believes that Obama’s victory will motivate minorities in Providence and around the nation.

“I think you’re going to see more African-Americans get involved in politics like they should,” he says.

Almeida, who also works as a financial assistant, added that Obama’s election in the midst of the country’s financial troubles brings economic hope to minorities who are facing economic discrimination.

“Has the civil rights agenda changed? Yeah, but now the civil rights agenda needs to look at the financial civil rights agenda that we have today,” he says.

Obama isn’t the only new symbol of change in this election. His wife and two daughters have also reached the spotlight.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement in the idea of a black First Lady, and a black First Family that can be an example to the rest of the world,” says Tricia Rose, a professor of Africana Studies at Brown University.

Rose says poverty often strains the bonds of family intimacy, and negative media stereotypes spread the image of the broken black family. Even Obama has been critical of black families at times, like in a speech at a church this summer when he took on black fathers who leave their children behind.

Now, a strong black First Family can help change this image. Rose says that seeing an a strong African-American family with “what appears to be a healthy relationship is probably more important than a black president in the absolute sense.”

Of course, electing a black president did not end inequality or the fight for civil rights in America. There are still vast disparities in poverty, incarceration rates, employment and healthcare in our country.

“It’s not a triumph over racial inequality,” Rose says. She adds that it was imprudent to believe that “the presidential office or any other single position could automatically and magically end what is not just a legacy of institutionalized inequality but the contemporary policies that reinforce that.”

President-elect Obama said himself last Tuesday that it will take time and will power to fix the challenges facing all Americans from every walk of life.

But he also said that he has never been so confident that we can achieve change.

-Dustin Sposato

George Mesthos contributed to this report. Photo courtesy flickr user transplanted mountaineer.