Shame On You, New York Times

Early this morning, still in my "Joe Biden: A Clean Articulate Guy" t-shirt, I stumble down four flights of stairs and go next door to the deli to pick up a copy of the newspaper that I will save to show my children. The New York Times is my local paper and I am generally very proud of this. Today, however, I look down at my Gray Lady sadly. "OBAMA," it reads in bold, then below "Racial Barrier Falls in Decisive Victory." Why would the Times choose that for a headline this important? Is there really nothing better to say about the culmination of the most important election in memory? How about, "Effective Grassroots Campaign Wins Election" or "Really Smart Guy Elected President." If they wanted to keep the same structure, I'd also be okay with, "Stupidity Barrier Falls in Decisive Victory"

Even now, as I'm writing this, someone on CNN is blathering on about how Obama did among white voters. Um, I think we know the answer to that. Actually, I think we know how he did with basically all voters. Pretty. Damn. Good. Why must the media bring race into it now, after he won?

People voted for Barack Obama because we believe in him and we see ourselves in him. Not in the way people saw themselves in Bush--We don't want to drink a beer with Obama, as the old litmus test went. In Obama we see the potential of our better self. We see the power of good and the beginning of new America, one we want to stand up for because it will finally stand up for us. So don't insult us with race. Don't make Americans out to be racists and bigots and stereotypes of our own ethnic and social groups. I don't want to hear the pundits spit out their sterilized garbage about what I think according to my age, race, education and income.

If we really have begun a time which is post-race, I can only hope that when my grandchildren ask me about Barack Obama, and I pull from a box a copy of The New York Times, yellowed and fragile, from November 5th 2008, that it will seem to them very dated indeed.

Comments

[clevelandchick]

Thank you Jessica. Like you, I've been very disappointed by the punditry's obsessive need to chalk his victory up to some idea that finally some white Americans looked beyond race. The diversity of Obama's support was not just about race, it included many conservatives and moderate Republicans. One would think that would be a great story line yet the media ignores it.

I advocated for Obama's candidacy in the primaries and voted for him to be president for several reasons: his intelligence, pragmatism, thoughtful demeanor, ability to remain calm and deliberative in tense situations, and most importantly because he asked me and all of the American people to be the change we need in this country.

Out of the entire slate of candidates, Obama was the only one that asked me to be part of the process and solution "We can and must work together. Yes We Can". The rest of them just gave us the tired old political promise of "I'll fight FOR you or I'll do FOR you". I versus We. Me versus You. That's not how we are going to move forward. It has to be US and WE fighting together for change.

[Clavis]

Obama is going to bring back the suit. I'm telling you. Harlem will have more suits than at any time since the 1920's. Since I look good in a suit, I look foward to this development...

[geaaronson]

I voted for the man because he`s the resurrection of John F. Kennedy. Nothing less, nothing more. Race has nothing to do with it, and I am a white male in his senior years.
I, too, am perturbed by the constant reminder that the man is black, has broken the color barrier in presidential politics, etc. etc. So what. From my standpoint that is insignificant. If the Times is so foolish to make a big deal of it, so be it. They`re not the best paper around, havent been there for years. The Washington Post is its peer and is the better paper. And there are dozens of papers around the country, that albeit have less comprehensive coverage, are superior to NY`s finest.

[JennyJay]

I would betcha that every single one of those 225,000 people in Grand Park, and the rest of
the world, loves Obama because of who he is. The world doesn't hate George Bush because
of the color of his skin, we hate him because of who he is, an ignorant, arrogant dunce.
The media are like dinosaurs, backward, behind the times, living in the distant past.
The world loves and trusts Obama, and we don't freaking care if he is green, red or blue.
WE JUST LOVE HIM !

[onlyred]

I voted for a great man who happens to be black.

That said, it IS a banner day/week/month/year for race. In so many vividly alive memories from yesterday, blacks couldn't drink from white water fountains, eat in a restaurant with whites and many more humiliating atrocities. Blacks were hung by the necks for their skin color and their relatives and friends had to carry that terror with them everywhere they went. "Could today be the day they get me?"

This is about race, but not the way you lament. It's about the entire America culture changing, growing, evolving and maturing in less than 50 years. Children raised in racist families grew up and saw no color. Maybe previous racists looked within themselves and found a better person. It's the hope that is inspired by this great man which highlights the hope that so many of us have been carrying for so many years. We all bleed red.

I am no historian, but I would be willing to bet that in no time in America's past, have we ever changed our attitudes that much, that fast.

I am a 41 year old white woman, raised by racists. I am so proud of this country that my heart has been threatening to burst all week.

[Ricktay]

Olien's comments are spot on. I voted Obama because I thought the world and the country would be so much better served by his administration than a McCain administration. After the GOP nearly destroyed this country and made a bigger mess of the world, I was so grateful that Americans changed this course through the election.

So, much like Olien's comments, I was taken aback about all the commentary immediately after Obama's speech that focused on the race issue. I am a middle aged white dude in a very red state and I don't see how race trumps other factors in his election.

Olien wrote "Stupidity Barrier Falls in Decisive Victory" would have been an okay subheader and I think that truly is the major story. Anti-intel­lectualism is the greatest hurdle for humanity to overcome to progress, and racism finds it roots there.

Yes, this should have been the focus initially: That finally, reason prevails over lunacy in an American presidential election.

[Shieldmaiden]

A better headline would have been "Obama wins in a MAJOR a s s w h o o p i n". Because he pretty much won every demographic except people even older than McCain.

[Oregon Ivy]

Too bad the headline didn't read:

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA CAPTURES MAJORITY OF EVERY VOTER DEMOGRAPHIC EXCEPT UNEDUCATED WHITE MALES

Because according to the stats I saw today, undeducated white males was the ONLY voter demographic where McCain got higher # of voters

[Oregon Ivy]

oh, and one other... really old f@rts

[victoriaaaaa]

Yes and thank you so much for bringing this even MORE coverage.

Shame on you.

[demfriend]

One of the hardest things I had to listen to before Nov 4 was that "If that Obama guy wins the blacks will invade our country". Yep weird idea and even stranger that this will give the "black people to Ok to take to the streets". I wanted to yell I "was white as white can get (red hair and all) and I was voting for Obama so there!" But I am not stupid and I do recognize this is amazing and a first and all of those things which I am not putting down asthe African Americans deserves everything they have as pride that we and they have come together to elect Barack Obama. But when the cables started with showing every black person they could known and unknown to put in front of their cameras those who "feared the takeover" already were yelling at me "See I told you so!!" "They are going to take over the gov now". These people yelling at me would take my butt to the ground if I called them racist as they don't see it that way. But folks racism is alive and will continue to raise it's ugliest head now and I wish it wouldn't and we could be one people under God and I will pray for it and President Obama.

[chc2001]

of COURSE he was the better candidate.
of COURSE you didnt vote for him because he is black.

but go look up the long hideous history of lynching in this country, and THEN say it is not TERRIBLY IMPORTANT that AS A NATION, we elected a black man.

i learned more yesterday than i imagined. i too was saying, "who CARES if he is black?? he is the BEST candidate!"

but when i learned just how recently blacks have been brutalized physically and emotionally (lynchings, jim crow laws, de facto denial of right to vote, and more), i realized it is HUGE that he was elected.

it makes me even PROUDER of us, as a nation.

[ciotog17]

Jessica:
You don't get to be a headline writer at the New York Times without a knack for tersely stating the obvious. "Man Stubs Toe in Bathtub/Exclaims Oath Pastor Would Not Condone" is about their style.

Although I am neither surprised nor shocked the Times would print a headline heralding (in the headline-writer's mind, I presume) the implosion of a racial barrier in America, in this instance I disagree with the subhead because of its inaccuracy, not its reference to America's racist heritage.

Racial barriers didn't "fall" with the election of Barack Obama; they merely have melted enough to allow him to walk through. The barriers metaphorically erected are built by individuals, like sandcastles at the beach; only the individuals living behind them can remove them or decide not to rebuild them when the tides of current events and contemporary culture wash over them.

For most white Americans, the barriers have been eroded for some time now. This election was like a giant wave that reached more of the sandcastles built furthest from the shore. As with Kennedy's election in 1960, the fact that no Catholic was elected president in 1956 has more to do with the fact that none were on the ballot than anti-Catholic feeling was much higher than it would be four years later.

The tipping point when the country was ready for a black president came sometime in the last 20 years; we were just waiting for the right one to come along.

[Jessica Olien - Huffpost Blogger]

I think it is a wonderful thing that we have elected a black man as president and I do think it should be celebrated, written and spoken about. In the first day after his victory I would just like to have seen the media reflect on Obama's many accomplishments instead of his skin color.

[WillNYC]

I think the media has been focusing on all the aspects of the Obama campaign's success. However, the issue of race is huge for just about everybody... so I can't blame folks for bringing this up.... once we all get used to the new President race will matter much less most folks.....

[LaFilleEnRose]

For the reasons you state, people yelled and cheered at his win. For the reason the NY Times mentioned, others sobbed their hearts out. I was one of the sobbers. The cheers came later for me. But only after the tears flowed and flowed and flowed.

[EvieMichael]

I agree with the other responses. While its commendable that you want Obama to be recognized for his intellect, accomplishments, and character-universal qualities independent from the brand of race, it is just undeniable what a milestone this is for the civil rights movement. Acknowledging the impact this is racially does not imply that Obama's election is exclusively about race.

[DocManhattan]

I really don't understand what you're so upset about. In the context of history, this victory IS largely about race. Race is what makes Obama's election unique in the history of the United States: it is a huge step towards putting slavery -- which wasn't really that long ago in historic terms -- behind us and seeing African Americans and white Americans on equal terms at last.

Your reaction seems to be a reflexive one born of anti-racist conditioning, which is of course to your credit. But political correctness shouldn't blind you to historical context. The NYT headline is absolutely the right one in this case.

[WilliamProc]

Te MSMs opinion has and always will be that a minority cannot win a political post based solely on his political skills. They always bring up race. The more things change, the more they stay the same!