A belated Election Night post!

I've been meaning to blog about election night ever since it happened, but somehow the last few weeks have simply run away with themselves. By this point everyone is probably thankful that the election drama is over and that the media has stopped obsessing with it...and here I go and bring it up again. What can I say?

The reason I want to blog about election night was because I have never experienced anything quite like it. Let me start at the beginning. I voted before I went to work in the morning, and mid-way through the day I became so sick that my boss sent me home. I could barely drive back to my apartment, I felt so sick. So instead of following the tense tallying of votes, I was in bed, trying to sleep. I had finally drifted off, when from deep in a cloud of sleep, I heard a woman screaming. And screaming. And screaming. I'll be honest, it freaked me out to be woken up by that. I live in a low income neighborhood that has its own troubles of violence and domestic abuse, so my first thought was not good. But then I heard all these car horns honking and honking. It took my foggy brain a few moments to comprehend, but then I realized--the election results must be in!! I fumbled down from my bunk bed to peer out the window, and I saw a small group of people collected on the street corner, shouting and jumping, and cars honking exuberantly as they drove by.

I was pretty sure that since my neighborhood is mostly African American, people would not be going this crazy unless Obama had won, but I had to know for sure! And I decided that even though I wasn't feeling well and could look it up on the Internet, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate with my neighbors in whatever was happening. So I got dressed and went outside in front of my house. "What were the results? Did Obama win?" I asked breathlessly. "He won! He won!" exclaimed the young African American woman I'd asked, and before I knew it the two of us were hugging and screaming and I was asking her twice to make sure it was true. I walked down to the street corner with her where a small group of other folks were and they were all smiling and occasionally jumping up and down and dancing. One guy started break dancing right there on the sidewalk. Two girls were dancing in the street. People I'd never met in my life were hugging me. And the car horns were going crazy, thanks to people on the street corners holding up Obama signs and waving them.

It was a weird mix of emotions for me. It was an absolute privilege to be able to participate in this joyfully historic moment, especially for the African American community. People were so gracious to share their joy with me, to hug me and smile at me and talk to me even though we were perfect strangers. It was probably one of the first times in my life when I felt excited, hopeful and proud to be a citizen of this country (sorry, friends, I'm not known for my american patriotism). And yet it felt very awkward to be the only white person standing there most of the time, with the exception of a couple white folks who were there for a few moments. This was compounded by the fact that because I was so sick, my screaming and exuberance were a little limited--everyone else was going crazy and I was counting myself doing good to be standing up--so I definitely felt afraid of looking like the lame white person. But even though inside I felt super awkward, I choose to stay standing on the corner anyway, because being there at all felt like the more courageous (and rewarding) thing to do, instead of retreating back inside my apartment. All in all, it was an amazing experience, and even with all my inner awkwardness, it was so much more worth it than looking up the stats on the Internet!