as i see it: prelude to the election, part 2

tonight i was thinking about the negativism and fear i have been feeling about the election. in 2000, i couldn't possibly imagine why anyone would vote for bush, and yet they did. i want to believe in the hope that obama espouses. i do. but i will be going to the polls with some trepidation and cautiousness. i hope that it only takes someone with hope to overcome the racism that not only incites violence but could rob this country of all that it can be. i hope that i am wrong in my fears about the so-called "bradley effect".

the complexity of racism astounds and scares me, especially when i notice it in my vietnamese family or even myself. that racism is not solely owned by white men speaks to this. it's no longer an overt evil, but something more subtly sinister. i heard a middle-aged white woman on npr express fear towards black people and what violence she believed "they" would do if obama wins. i thought this to be the most irrational fear, and in my gut, it made me angry. yet, as a woman, how many times have you felt fear in the presence of a black man when walking down a darkened street? it makes me think twice about ingrained societal beliefs and if we will be able to rise above negative stereotypes and fears of the unfamiliar. if it's difficult for someone like me, someone in their thirties who is a relativist and fairly open-minded, to be innocent of it, i wonder at the beliefs of people with more narrow world views or people who have grown up in a time when racism was more overt, and how they will vote. still, if the election does anything, it confronts me with the issue of race, and that is a good thing.