Progress

I thought this, from Ezra Klein, was a nice frame for the evening:

Towards the end of the 1967 movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," Dr. John Wane Prentice, played by Sydney Poitier, sits down with his fiance's white father, played by Spencer Tracy. "Have you given any thought to the problems your children will have?" Tracy asks. "Yes, and they'll have some...[But] Joey feels that all of our children will be President of the United States," replies Poitier. "How do you feel about that?" asks Tracy, looking skeptically at the black man in front of him. "I'd settle for Secretary of State," Poitier laughs.

... here we are, almost exactly 40 years after theatergoers heard that exchange. The last two Secretaries of State were African-American and, as of tonight, the next president may well be a black man. John Prentice's children would probably still be in their late-30s. They could still grow up to be cabinet officials or even presidents, but they would not necessarily be trailblazers.

Congratulations, Senator Obama.

Photo by Flickr user ChristheDunn used under a Creative Commons license.

Comments

Nice post, Ross.

Posted by James | June 4, 2008 8:54 AM

Ezra's post was good but we need to get beyond simple colors to this from MLK Jr.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Posted by JRip | June 4, 2008 9:11 AM

Thanks for this post, Ross.

Posted by Elvis Elvisberg | June 4, 2008 9:14 AM

There was a good essay (maybe by Henry Louis Gates?) that I read about ten years ago. The ghost of Frederick Douglass appeared to the narrator and asked about the state of black America. The narrator told him that a black man had been general-in-chief of the nation. A black man had been elected senator from Massachusetts, and a black woman had been elected from Illinois. Two black men had sat on the Supreme Court. There had been a number of black Cabinet secretaries. Several of the largest companies in America had black presidents. A black man had been elected mayor of New York (scene of the Civil War draft riots and related lynchings) and a black man had been elected governor of Virginia (!). There have been hundreds of black students admitted to Harvard. The Supreme Court had ruled that segregation of schools was illegal. The Congress of the United States and the legislature of every single state in the Union had passed laws prohibiting discrimination against black people in employment. The United States maintains a massive bureaucracy dedicated to enforcing those laws. Most large businesses have programs designed to improve opportunities for black people and ensure that the business gives black people equal opportunity.

And Frederick Douglass said: "Wonderful. So everything we dreamed of has happened, and all our problems are gone." And the narrator had to say, "No. Things are as bad as they have ever been."

Does anyone really think that adding one more sentence to the list in the first paragraph will change anything?

Posted by y81 | June 4, 2008 11:27 AM

Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice post. But there's something creepy about it coming from Ross, who is chummy with Steve "Racial Science" Sailer and who denounces a black woman receiving some public assistance in New Orleans as a "welfare duchess" because he thinks her TV is too large. It's reminiscent of the Republican pols who drape themselves in solemnity every Martin Luther King Day while spending the other 364 days of the year trying to bring back de facto segregation.

And yeah, it's nice that Dumbya has allowed two longtime family attendants to ascend to the office of Secretary of State, but at what cost? Both of them were undercut by Dickless Cheney at every turn, and are generally regarded as the least powerful and influential Secretaries of State we've ever had due to the expanded role of the VP/puppet master. Colin Powell sacrificed his dignity and reputation when he allowed himself to be used as a lie-bearing messenger in front of the whole world. That doesn't seem like progress to me.

Obama's victory does, though - but Ross has nothing to do with it and really doesn't celebrate it, and will be doing what he can to help McCain and the GOP see that it ends in November.

Posted by MoeLarryAndJesus | June 4, 2008 11:40 AM

And the narrator had to say, "No. Things are as bad as they have ever been."

Do you or Dr. Gates subscribe to this sentiment? How would you justify that, inasmuch as 'as bad as they have ever been' encompasses chattel slavery?

Does anyone really think that adding one more sentence to the list in the first paragraph will change anything?

You are correct that it is an indicator of modest importance and relevant only to the civic status of the black population. What other condition can be reliably manipulated by public policy?

Posted by Art Deco | June 4, 2008 5:03 PM

There's an unintentionally funny scene in the movie with a character named Hillary. It ends with Hepburn saying, 'Don't speak, Hillary, just go.':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7__WVG7vM8

I've blogged about it here: http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2008/06/'Don't-speak%2c-Hillary%2c-just-go'.aspx

Posted by Sam Roggeveen | June 4, 2008 8:05 PM

I wondered whether the MoeLarryandJesus impersonator would show up on this thread and write a mean-spirited post. I think the impersonator did, but it's getting harder to tell.

Posted by J Mann | June 5, 2008 10:41 AM

"Wonderful. So everything we dreamed of has happened, and all our problems are gone."

TR: Douglass died in 1895. In his life he was chargé d'affaires to the Dominican Republic and headed a bank. I'm not sure if the things you listed would make him say "everything we dreamed of has happened."

He'd be happy at such news, but at the very least I think he'd plausibly state something like

Then is the Klan still around?
How many of us are poor?
Poor in the South?
How many of us are in prison?
How many of us go to college?
Why are such massive efforts still needed for equality?

One of those, or something like it, anyway. I'm not sure he was as easily satisfied as indicated.

Posted by Thomas R | June 8, 2008 12:41 PM