"We started out with the promise of 40 acres and a mule. What did we end up with? A White House."

[AtomicKitten]

The following is a bittersweet piece by SF gadfly, Willie Brown, from last week regarding the spectacular Obama victory in the face of the crushing blow of Prop. 8.

Obama's victory thrills minority working folks
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/09/BAFS140BQA.DTL



Willie Brown
Sunday, November 9, 2008

San Francisco these days resembles a restaurant where there's a wedding and a funeral going on at the same time, and the two crowds are all mixed up at the bar.

One person is thrilled about the election of Barack Obama. Then you turn around, and there's a person downright anguished about the passage of the ban on same-sex marriages.

And there are some who are happy about Obama but don't want to smile too broadly, out of deference to the people who are about to slit their throats over Proposition 8.

That said, the level of enthusiasm over Obama's victory among the working minorities - the men and women who clean the rooms, drive cabs, the doormen - is just amazing.

Early Wednesday, there was a knock on my apartment door at the St. Regis.

I'm thinking, "Who the hell is knocking on my door? You can't even get into the building without permission, let alone knock on my door."

I open it up and it's the little Cambodian lady who runs the sweeper in the hallway.

She can barely speak English, but she's standing there, smiling, and says: "Congratulations, we won!"

Three cab drivers - none of them black - flashed Obama buttons at me.

Later in the day I was leaving the Redevelopment Agency when a city worker came up to me and said, "I got something for you."

He hands me a paper bag. Inside was an Obama doll.

And there's a lot of black pride over this election. I was at a restaurant Thursday night and the lone black server in the place pulled me aside, out of earshot of everyone.

"Excuse me, but I just had to tell another black person how happy I am," he said.

And then, on the elevator at CBS-5 Friday morning I ran into Sinbad, the comedian.

We jived a bit and as he was getting off I said, "Now be good."

Sinbad turned back, smiled and said, "I don't have to be good - we got Barack!"

All I can say is, we started out with the promise of 40 acres and a mule. What did we end up with?

A White House.

[Drunken Irishman]

1. I don't like Willie Brown, but it's a good article.

[PM Martin]

2. Anything is possible!

:kick:

[Clio the Leo]

3. That was a PROMISE still unfulfilled......

... we had to WORK to get the White House. ;)

[Arugula Latte]

4. Obama got elected with no help from Willie, though.

Just sayin'.