Obama’s election: a turning point in the perception of blacks?
African American men wonder if the wider culture will finally start to see them as true equals or if the president-elect will just be seen as yet another exception.
By Carla Hall and Marjorie Miller (LA Times)
Hakeem Holloway may be a classically trained musician who has played with orchestras around the world, but when he crosses an L.A. city street wearing his typical uniform of jeans and a hoodie, white women have been known to eye him, a black man, and clutch their purses more tightly to their sides.
Frank Gilliam, the dean of UCLA’s School of Public Affairs, sometimes flies first class. When he does, white passengers often ask Gilliam, who is black, if he’s a record producer — if they talk to him at all.
Even as millions of black Americans revel in Barack Obama’s victory and plan trips to his inauguration that are turning into pilgrimages, many still wonder if this transformative moment in American politics will truly transform perceptions of black men. How much, if at all, they ask, will Obama’s victory shatter that glass ceiling?
