Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Immigration Law Blogs -> US Immigration Matters

Immigration Law

: US Immigration Matters

Our First Black President

By Annie Banerjee

I have never been so proud to be an American as today.

During the 80s and 90s, raising kids in a predominantly white neighborhood of Tanglewood, and in River Oaks Baptist School in Houston, we had endured intense discrimination. Kids told my children that their parents told them not to be friends with them because they were not white. The teachers told them they would go to hell because they were not Christians. At River Oaks Baptist School, my daughter and son were placed in remedial classes, simply because they were not whites. The fact that they were Mensa members did not matter to the School. Our neighbors looked at us as though we did not belong there.

Slowly though (or fast if you consider it only 5-7 years) the neighborhood changed. There are more and more ethnic families there. I have an Iranian and Chinese neighbor. I see a lot of South American, Indian and different faces now. I placed my kids in Saint John's School, where they did not face any discrimination. They have moved on to Yale and Duke and did not let the River Oaks Baptist people brain wash them into thinking they cant.

That is why, I was in tears yesterday not only to see Barak win, but to see him get the votes from all segment of society and win by a huge majority. Only in America can you go from having separate bathroom and drinking fountains for black America to the President in 40 years. I am confident that finally having a President with a high IQ in the white house will improve our country. America has proved that we do not want Joe the unlicensed plumber simply because he was born in the US. We want the licensed experienced plumber, no matter what his race, religion, national origin, ethnicity or sexual orientation is.

As to McCain, we got the old McCain back yesterday during his concession speech. The McCain who could reach out to Ted Kennedy for the McCain-Kennedy Immigration bill, the McCain who would speak the truth no matter what. That McCain had disappeared during the Campaign. Ambition propelled him to appease the Conservative Right Wing base, got him to elect Sarah Palin with no forethought that she would be running the country if he should die, the McCain who unabashedly approved false and defamatory commercials against Barak. Had the republican party ran on issues rather than negative campaign, they would have had a much better fighting chance.

My daughter, a Literature major from Yale, likened McCain's power grab to that of Macbeth. A good man turned bad from the ambition to become King. Yes, the Republican campaign can be said to be a "tale told by an idiot---full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Hopefully the thunder, lighting and rain that has engulfed our country will dissipate as order returns.

And as for Sarah Palin, I do hope that she has menopause before she can pop out another Down Syndrome baby on this earth.

Contact Houston Immigration Lawyer, Annie Banerjee for more details

Full post as published by US Immigration Matters on November 05, 2008 (boomark / email).