A portion of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech came full circle when Illinois Senator Barack Hussein Obama was declared the Democratic nominee for the presidency of the United States of America in early June of 2008. His meteoric rise to this position is largely based on his merits. It is also largely based on the American people’s confidence in his policies to make the United States a better place for themselves and for their children. Barack Obama was able to achieve all of this based on the content of his character and not the color of his skin.

To their credit, large portions of the American people have seemed to wade through racially motivated flare-ups ignited by cable news network background-prodding and political pundit analysis. Obama’s race has become an insignificant matter, turned invisible for some. He is simply an extraordinary man poised to do extraordinary things for his countrymen and the world. We have come a long way when race is not a part of the deciding factor on whether to vote someone into office. Yet, it is important to point out just how much his race does not play a role in the way he is viewed by much of his non-minority supporters. It is a clear invisibility that is more than overlooked- it is ignored. Unfortunately, this is a slight most minorities aren’t immune to. This invisibility comes with a fear that no matter how great his contributions are, negative perceptions of minorities in this country will never change.

Much like Kennedy and Clinton before him, the American people take to Obama.  His likeability is a signal that people find him relatable. This is an important tool, because a candidate could not be voted into any office if the public does not see a bit of itself in him or her. Yet, the strange thing with being relatable is that people take the parts of a person they see in themselves and don’t recognize or consider the parts that make the two different.

Obama’s unique background as both white and African, coupled with his Muslim, Polynesian, and Asian-influenced childhood, as well as his coming of age as black man in America is unlike any- even in this melting pot of a nation. Yet, the invisibility of all this to his non-minority supporters could come to the detriment of the minority community.  If not taken for all that he is, Obama’s positive image and great achievements stand to do nothing for the way minorities are perceived and subsequently treated in this country. The strides he makes both professionally and personally could potentially be seen as an isolated case.

It is said that a large portion of a person’s reality is composed by their perceptions: A thing is not necessarily what is true, but what a person observes and then formulates it to be. Stereotypes have shaped the way minorities are seen in this country by the majority for hundreds of years. Blacks are unintelligent and lazy. Asians don’t drive well and speak broken English. Hispanics are dirty. Arabs are terrorists. Jews are money hungry. Native Americans are drunkards. Americans have long held all of these self-evidences to be truths. These perceived truths have kept minorities from getting better jobs, better housing, better education, and support from not only the government and communities-at-large, but their neighbors. These understood ideas often manifest themselves in driving while black, being followed in a store by a clerk, someone locking their car doors as a minority stands next to them on a busy street corner, a lady grabbing her purse as a minority walks by, or being wrongfully accused or convicted of a crime based on eyewitness accounts in which “they all look alike” applications are applied. The majority fears ethnic people, because it is believed ethnic people have an inclination toward criminal activities. The majority also believes that minorities are somehow inferior. Obama undoubtedly has experienced most of these things. His non-minority supporters have the obligation to be personally a part of the change that won’t make these experiences as common as they are. He is the vehicle through which this change can happen- he is their common ground.

Just the idea that electing Obama to office will bring about true change is one of ignorance. It lends itself to the common exchange among some non-minorities like, “What do you mean I’m racist, I voted for Barack Obama.” And the ideas that: Barack Obama “made it out.” Barack Obama “beat the system.” “Barack Obama can do it, why can’t you?” All of these exchanges will come about if it is not recognized by non-minorities that much of the discrimination and marginalization that minorities experience is because of a system of injustice, which is deeply embedded in American society. He should be recognized as a man who represents a large majority of minority people who stand for positivism and righteousness. He is an extraordinary one of millions- educated, motivated, and ready. The potential next president should not be placed on a pedestal of one. Barack Obama is not a deviation from the way black men or minorities stereotypically are. He is a shining example of what can happen when hard work meets awesome opportunity. There are millions just like him- striving, everyday, to make things better for themselves, their families, and their communities. Obama’s black star rising should be acknowledged and celebrated by all of his supporters.

America now stands at a turning point in history. The turning point is not only in this presidential election, but in the way in which minorities are perceived. Americans are equipped for the task of breaking down these walls. Let it not got to waste. Minorities and non-minorities alike can stand together, as Americans, and finally put to rest all of the problems these negative perceptions have caused. It won’t be reversed in this campaign or Obama’s possible tenure in the White House. It probably won’t come into fruition for the next generation. But, Americans can start. The time is now.

By: Caegan Moore