Talking with a doctor I work with who happens to be African-American

[w8liftinglady]

In my overwhelmingly Red area...
He brought up how his son had recorded over his dvrs of the debates...so I asked him"You watched the debates closely?"
"Oh,Yeah!"
'So,let me ask you,Dr. K..this has to be an overwhelming moment for you..I'll say it..as an African-American "
Tears came to his eyes..
"You wouldn't understand...what I've been through in my life to get where I am"
Tears came to my eyes...
"I'm the mom of an Iraq War Vet,and an outspoken Dem in this county...yes,I understand how it feels to be judged before someone even meets you"
we talked for the next 30 minutes about the race,about racism our children have seen in elementary school,about the blatant racism that exists today,about the shit treatment our troops and vets get,and about the terrible state of healthcare today.
Finally,I had to put my hand up.."I have to get to work!"
The jaws of my co-workers were on the floor.
My secret is out.
I'm relieved...I feel cleansed...and so does my doc friend.
He told me.."It's been so HARD to keep my mouth shut"
Have those of you in blatantly red areas had this kind of connection when you finally meet a like-minded person?

[cliffordu]

1. K&R

[w8liftinglady]

2. Thanks,man...it was one of the best moments of my "political" life

[Swamp Rat]

3. I gave up keeping my mouth shut long ago, as it used too many muscles for nothing gained.

:D

w8liftinglady! :hug: :loveya:

[w8liftinglady]

4. Swamp Rat!

I'm So Glad you don't keep your mouth..or your artistic mind ...shut!
:loveya: :pals:

[Swamp Rat]

7. How's your boy doing these days?

:patriot:

[w8liftinglady]

8. He is maintaining.

Going back to school...no more drunken outbursts..maybe he's started healing....thanks for asking..and caring:pals:

[Jazzgirl]

11. Swampy, I swear one day I'm gonna learn how to do that.

n/t

[Swamp Rat]

12. Listen to "Giant Steps" backwards a bunch of times while on acid,

or play it backwards (on your instrument of choice) adding flat 2s and 5s whenever possible. :D

or just play a whole tone scale over and over... insane in the membrane. :crazy:

[Sparkly]

5. Which is why the notion that it's racist to say "It MATTERS" is crazy to me.

It matters -- a great deal. K&R :kick:

[tavalon]

16. "It matters",

meaning the color of his skin?

Yeah, that does matter some and goodness knows, there are far fewer African American dumbasses than White dumbasses in this country so it's about time we had one leading us, but really, what matters to me is that he's so damn smart and that he is so obviously interested in hearing other points of view and that he assimilates them and coherently comes up with plans based on what he learns. It's the same thing that jazzed me about Gore and also about Edwards (am I allowed to mention his name these days?). I'm thrilled that, on top of getting the smartest guy in the room, we also get to break the color ceiling. But it's really just a neat bonus. When I look at that man and his wife and his adorable children, I don't see black, I see magnificent - those people love each other and they love this country enough to make a very huge sacrifice of service. It's a far bigger sacrifice than I would ever be willing to make and it will break my heart to see them age at twice the speed that they should and yet, this is what they want. They want to give this greatest service and I have a suspicion that we are seeing the ascendence of not a Bill Clinton but an Abraham Lincoln or an FDR. I may just be fucking with myself in these last 48 hours but I really think I'm seeing the beginning of one of the greatest Presidencies of all time, made all the more amazing by it's following on the heels of the absolute worst.

We are waking up and watching history being made. That his skin is darker than mine is really more important to others but I'm glad to see this barrier taken down and I'm looking forward to, in eight or twelve or sixteen years to a woman also breaking through. This isn't an old white man's world anymore.

Man, we live in an amazing time. I wish we hadn't needed to go through the last eight years, but on the eve of history making, I'm pumped.

[gratuitous]

6. These transcendent moments happen

But they only happen when someone opens his or her mouth and takes a chance on contact. An excellent exchange.

[dkofos]

9. I'm proud as hell to even have the privilege to have voted for BO.

I will be even more proud when he WINS.

[tavalon]

17. I've been canvassing today and will go again tomorrow

People are so pumped this time around. Thrilled, they are. Happy we will be.

[Jazzgirl]

10. I refuse to keep my mouth shut. I am very proud about

this moment. I too have experienced a shitpot load of racism in my life. I honestly never thought I'd see the day where it was really possible for an African American to become president. Even in view of all the racism that is being openly displayed. I have been pleasantly surprised by many of the people in Texas that I know are voting or have voted for Barack. It is incredible.

[w8liftinglady]

13. I've been surprised,too.

I've also been saddenned by the racial epithets people repeat,thinking because you are white,then you think like them.I always say"We don't allow that word in my house",and walk away.It's sad.

[Divernan]

14. Wearing my Obama button, I have started lots of conversations with black Americans

and it's been great. Although it doesn't compare with the massively oppressive burden of dealing with racism every day of your life, I have a sense of how they feel and why that doctor got tears in his eyes. As a female lawyer, I was 46 years old before I had occasion to argue a case before a female judge. I was so surprised at the overwhelming feeling of freedom that I had, and struggled with tears in my eyes. The "freedom" was that for the first time in a courtroom I felt I was making a purely intellectual and professional argument to a judge who was not perceiving me through an additional lens of being of the opposite sex. The male judges in our county were a very mixed bag - usually with very big egos, and especially the older ones with definite ideas about how female attorneys should dress, talk, move, etc. The women lawyers would trade information on the judges re how they reacted to women. Many of the male judges were insulted by women who were pants suits, even in the dead of winter. Some of them flirted. The older ones had not gone to law school with women and were used to women only as secretaries or clerks.

I was at one "call of the list" in one of those backward Pennsylvania counties such as John Murtha accurately if unwisely described as prejudiced and uneducated. There were over 100 lawyers there as the presiding judge called out the names of cases, and all the lawyers involved in each case. The lawyers had to stand as their names were called and tell the judge if they were ready for trial, or if they needed a specific amount of time for further discovery, pretrial motions, etc. There were just 3 or 4 women there. The first time a woman's name was called, and she stood up, the asshole judge looked her up and down and asked her in a very insulting tone if she was a paralegal. She replied that she was a lawyer. He then demanded she state for the record her state attorney license number. Prior to that he'd spoken with at least 30 male lawyers and none of them were asked for such documentation. When he got to my case, there was a bit of a hush, because my client was General Motors - a far bigger party than any involved in any of the other cases, and one which had sent in an attorney (me) from the "big city" to their little one-horse county seat. Everyone was looking around to see who GM's atty. was. I stood up and in my loudest courtroom voice, boomed out my name, and then "General Motors is ready for trial." I looked that bastard right in the eye and he didn't dare ask me for my attorney's license number. I would have loved to have said, "Tell me, your HONOR, is it a local rule of court that only FEMALE attorneys have to recite their license number?" However, that would have really damaged my client's treatment by that court, so I kept my mouth shut.

[tavalon]

15. I'm incredibly blessed these days to live in Dem country

But I lived in Texas for 24 years and only 6 of those were in the haven of Austin.