Worth the read, if you haven't yet.
The Audacity To Win: The Notion of a President Barack Obama and What That Really Meansby Anthony Asadullah Samad
Never in the history of America have things gotten so bad that they would throw white people out of power. That was never a consideration before now. Now, we also know if President-elect Obama had finished fifth from the bottom of his class, like Senator John McCain, or attended six state or community colleges, like Governor Sarah Palin, Obama never would have been a consideration for President, much less elected President.
So goes the privileges of whiteness, and as we saw with George W. Bush, pedigree has no limits on achievement and reaches far beyond the deepest dearth of intelligence. Pardon my digression, but it was relevant to the point of Barack being intelligent and audacious enough to play past the historical privileges of race, class and culture to do what no other person of color have ever done: wrestle the mantle of leadership from white cultural dominance.
Though we now see Obama as the head of the government “to be,” we are not foolish enough to believe that he will run the country. There’s a difference between leading the government and running the country. With many of the historically discriminatory institutions and systems still in place, one slip and the country will run over him. I’m sure he’s aware of that, as it was announced that guns sale were up in the South and Midwest. The cautionary perception here is that America had an election, not a “take-over.” Let’s be clear about that. But Barack Obama has received a mandate to lead this nation out if its modern day depression - bankrupt and dissolute as it is.
snip
Now we all must sit back and watch this take shape before we can understand what it really means. Just know Barack Obama will need us all to make the change he had the audacity to make reality, winning the Presidency - more than a success for himself, but a success for the nation. That’s what the notion of a Barack presidency means, and that’s a bodacious charge.
A much longer article is at the link:
http://www.laprogressive.com/2008/11/13/the-audacity-to-win-the-notion-of-a-president-barack-obama-and-what-that-really-means/