Rock the Hope
7:04am, First Baptist Church,
Monte Sereno, California
On the most important election day our lives, the polls were a bit underwhelming. I think everyone was expecting chaos. Background: I live in a very white neighborhood of the Silicon Valley. The residents are a mixture of old money, venture capitalists, hedge fund millionaires. And me. My polling station is/was in a church, which strikes me as weird because aren’t we supposed to keep church and state separate? Yet on the most important day of the year, we’re in a church voting? It sends a mixed message, that’s all I’m saying.
I showed up at 7:04am, there were 14 people ahead of me and I was number 15 to vote. One couple showed up, waited in line then handed the poll workers their mail-in ballots. Better late than never. Though I was hoping I would be able to cast my vote at the alter for the full church effect, we were instead given 5 portable plastic booths. Pretty standard.
This must have been the most polite polling station anywhere. Everyone was thanked for coming and an old lady even opened the door for me on the way out at 7:25am. Net net: It was impossible to read this line. On one hand, I like to think the First Baptist Church was drenched in hope and change. On the other, maybe not.
Just as I was telling my wife how much different voting in suburbia is compared to San Francisco (where I’ve voted in the past), when a girl screamed into her cell phone, “I voted! I voted!”
I have to admit, I’m more than a bit nervous and confused about this election. I was sure the polls would be mobbed. Maybe they’re all waiting to vote at the last minute. I don’t know. All I know is that so much is on the line. Standing there outside the church, my wife and I chatted about the consequences of this election.
Then it dawned on me:
What if he doesn’t win? No presidential candidate has ever come back from such a deficit in the pre-election polls. It hasn’t happened. But what if it does? What will happen to race relations if McCain magically reverses an 11-point lead in one day? How will black people – who are registering in record numbers – ever trust the system again? Furthermore, how will I ever trust the system again? We talk about this Bradley Effect as an abstraction in California. But if it’s real, could it result in a wholesale rejection of the American dream in a way we haven’t seen since the 60s?
On the other hand, as a friend points out, what will happen to hip-hop if Obama wins? So much of hip-hop’s roots are predicated by the fact that the black man is
A mile away, Starbucks is giving away free coffee and the line was approximately twice as long as the line at the polls. Instead of taking her free tall coffee, the black girl in front of me ordered a vanilla mocha.
kept down by the system. If a black man is president, doesn’t that change everything? Doesn’t the whole rap caricature dissolve if the system actually works?
I’ve been accused of being naïve and asking a lot of dumb questions. I thought there was no way Bush would beat Al Gore. I was also pretty convinced (read: naïve and hopeful) that Kerry would deny him a second term. Wrong on both accounts. So if Obama loses, does that mean the GOP secretly controls everything anyway so what’s the point of voting? There I go again.
On the most important election day our lives, the polls were a bit underwhelming. I think everyone was expecting chaos. Background: I live in a very white neighborhood of the Silicon Valley. The residents are a mixture of old money, venture capitalists, hedge fund millionaires. And me. My polling station is/was in a church, which strikes me as weird because aren’t we supposed to keep church and state separate? Yet on the most important day of the year, we’re in a church voting? It sends a mixed message, that’s all I’m saying. I showed up at 7:04am, there were 14 people ahead of me and I was number 15 to vote. One couple showed up, waited in line then handed the poll workers their mail-in ballots. Better late than never. Though I was hoping I would be able to cast my vote at the alter for the full church effect, we were instead given 5 portable plastic booths. Pretty standard.
This must have been the most polite polling station anywhere. Everyone was thanked for coming and an old lady even opened the door for me on the way out at 7:25am. Net net: It was impossible to read this line. On one hand, I like to think the First Baptist Church was drenched in hope and change. On the other, maybe not. Just as I was telling my wife how much different voting in suburbia is compared to San Francisco (where I’ve voted in the past), when a girl screamed into her cell phone, “I voted! I voted!”
I have to admit, I’m more than a bit nervous and confused about this election. I was sure the polls would be mobbed. Maybe they’re all waiting to vote at the last minute. I don’t know. All I know is that so much is on the line. Standing there outside the church, my wife and I chatted about the consequences of this election.
Then it dawned on me:
What if he doesn’t win? No presidential candidate has ever come back from such a deficit in the pre-election polls. It hasn’t happened. But what if it does? What will happen to race relations if McCain magically reverses an 11-point lead in one day? How will black people – who are registering in record numbers – ever trust the system again? Furthermore, how will I ever trust the system again? We talk about this Bradley Effect as an abstraction in California. But if it’s real, could it result in a wholesale rejection of the American dream in a way we haven’t seen since the 60s? On the other hand, as a friend points out, what will happen to hip-hop if Obama wins? So much of hip-hop’s roots are predicated by the fact that the black man is
A mile away, Starbucks is giving away free coffee and the line was approximately twice as long as the line at the polls. Instead of taking her free tall coffee, the black girl in front of me ordered a vanilla mocha. kept down by the system. If a black man is president, doesn’t that change everything? Doesn’t the whole rap caricature dissolve if the system actually works?
I’ve been accused of being naïve and asking a lot of dumb questions. I thought there was no way Bush would beat Al Gore. I was also pretty convinced (read: naïve and hopeful) that Kerry would deny him a second term. Wrong on both accounts. So if Obama loses, does that mean the GOP secretly controls everything anyway so what’s the point of voting? There I go again.
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