No longer a "white" house

If you’ve seen the email forward of the guy on the bike, riding through traffic, on the back of his t shirt is the slogan "It’s called a white house for a reason" then you know some of the fallout from the election results.

People are justifiably upset by this slogan and it’s racist underpinnings.

I think the statement needs more credit. The slogan is true because the mentality behind it has held true. It has been a white house for 43 presidencies. And people have been used to thinking of it as a white man’s job.

Guess what? 

No longer!

Controversy or commentary?

Yes, it’s come to that. I’ve found a topic to write about that is interesting to me but potentially harmful to some of my friendships or the image people have of me. It’s a subject that some of you might agree with and others feel alienated. For the first time in my brief year as a blogger, I am contemplating self censorship.

So I ask you, reader, what shall we do? Should we get into it? Or should we keep our focus on the election.

While I await your response, a few thoughts on the last 18 days of this ‘race’.

I read an article a while ago, when Hillary was still heavy into the primary run off, that said, "Yes, marriage is hard, but not that marriage [again]" in the White House. The author presented, very effectively, that while every marriage has issues, it seemed many people had objections to the Clintons because of their well known ones. I thought the author was fair to Bill and Hillary and pointed out that in our flaws, we share what is most human.

Here’s my thought in the same vein:

Yes, a woman VP would be exciting. But this woman? Really?

(Shall we or won’t we get into the nitty gritty of my issue above? I wait to hear from you!)

What happens next?

I went to a debate in here Doha last night, with people who represented both parties, Republican and Democrat. What struck me as I listened was how much was not being said. The Republican representative kept talking about John McCain as the ‘acceptable’ candidate. Now what, in the world, does that mean?

I did ask a question during the Q and A (about why the Republican party likes to apply mud slinging rhetoric to others and ignore their own mud) but not the one I’m contemplating this morning.

Regardless of who wins, what happens next? Will we just go back to pretending the content of a man’s character was not the subject of pre-election days, but rather the color of his middle name? All uncomfortable racial and gender politics that have been uncovered in this long campaign – will they just be swept under the rug and business as usual?

Forget about reaching across party lines for a moment. Who is going to breach the racial divisions?
Let’s hope for our sake it’s whomever is elected president.