The Kids are Alright...

By the age of 7, in 1974, I had used the word "nigger" in casual conversation. I knew it as a synonym for "blacks", though it would be a few more years before I would come to realize it was more than just another word. Such was the advancement of my generation, that we didn't really know the word was bad.

Earlier yesterday evening, I told my own 7-year-old that tonight, in the US, they might elect the first black man as President. He stared at me, wrinkled his nose and said

"So? I don't care."

I couldn't help but smile.

He didn't care because for him, its inconceivable that a black person couldn't be President of the US. The history of the moment was lost on him because, to him and his friends, the idea of "black" or "white" that my generation has, is lost. In fact, my two oldest kids, aged 7 and 9, don't even use the term "black" - they describe their friends as "Jenna with the dark skin" or "Sanjana with the light brown skin" or "Katie with the light skin and freckles". Its not race, is pure visual, pure description.

What to me and my generation is an earth-shattering event of enormous historical importance, is merely a normal day for my kids.

And that is just fine by me.

I have no illusions that President Barack Obama will be anything other than just another man in charge of the state. He won't perform miracles and he won't be a savior. Indeed, I expect him to pass some pretty bad policies and legislation, most of which I will not agree with or even oppose vehemently.

But I know history when I see it and for me this is history. His election is symbolic that maybe, just maybe, the scourge of racism is dying and that in another generation or two, it will be a thing of the past.

My son is living proof that it is happening.

In December I'll be 41 years old. In my life I have seen Apollo 11 landing on the moon, the end of the Viet Nam War, the 72 Series, the resignation of a US President in disgrace, the Iranian Hostage Crisis, the Challenger Disaster, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela, the end of Apartheid, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Tienanmen Square, Oklahoma City, 9-11, both Iraq Wars, the start of the 2nd Great Depression and the first African American elected President of the USA.

I wonder what the next 41 years will bring. Whatever they bring, I know that the next generation is already an improvement over mine.

That is the real cause for hope today.