Academic

A Tale of Two Visions

By Nareissa Smith

I am so excited to be at The Faculty Lounge!  I hope you'll enjoy my first post. 

Last Saturday, I attended a rally for Barack Obama here in Jacksonville.  While Jacksonville has traditionally been a Republican stronghold - see  here and here - Obama managed to draw a crowd of over 20,000 people, according to official media reports.  This figure, of course, does not count the number of people the police turned away after closing the park. 

As I stood in the rally with my toddler in tow, I looked at the crowd around me.  For all of the talk of McCain having clear advantages over certain groups - namely seniors, white  men, and white women - at the rally, I saw white senior citizens of both genders, and not just a few.  I also saw young people of all descriptions.  I saw people who were wheelchair bound and people using devices to assist them with visual impairments.  This is going to sound very trite, but the sight of people of all different races and colors and genders and creeds and abilities coming together was inspiring.  I left the rally thinking, "This is what America is like at its very best."   

But as often happens in life, and particularly in politics, this optimism was fleeting.  This time, the rain on my parade came in the form of a poll which stated that while John McCain has the support of 85% of Republicans, only 70 percent of White Democrats are backing Obama.  Even more disturbing, the poll data indicates that many negative attitudes toward African Americans that we would have hoped were extinct are alive and well.

All of this got me thinking - which experience was real?  The one at the rally? The one the polls suggest?  I know that I should believe half of what I see, and none of what I hear, but I'd like to think that I can believe my eyes and that the polls are wrong.

Or maybe both are right.  There seem to be two Americas - the America we are and the America we want to be.  If I may paraphrase those awful diet slogans -  inside of our country with its imperfections and -isms and -phobias and intolerance and other problems - is a tolerant, happy, hopeful country just waiting to break free.  Will we be able to do it?  I don't know.

I wonder if Jenny Craig is ready for this project . . .    

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on September 23, 2008 (boomark / email).