I am channeling cultural anthropologist Erick H. Erikson in examining the two greatest events in American history, both of them essentially in the form of Emancipations critical to different resident populations of America. More below the orange squiggle.
The purpose of this brief diary is to stimulate some thoughtful conversation regarding two major historical events that have shaped the cultural evolution of American society.
From Wikipedia: On January 1, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure during the Civil War, directed to all of the areas in rebellion and all segments of the Executive branch (including the Army and the Navy) proclaiming the freedom of slaves in the ten states that were still in rebellion against the Union at the time. The Proclamation was issued under the president's constitutional authority as commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States of America.
The Emancipation Proclamation defined Lincoln's presidency and changed the societal course of America, freeing an estimated 3 million slaves from the applicable specified regions. The Emancipation was solidified by the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865, which made slavery and indentured servitude, except for those convicted of a crime, illegal everywhere subject to United States jurisdiction.
I submit that election of Barack Hussein Obama President of the United States of America in the year 2008 was another great historical event, the significance of which is far more important than the formidable achievement of being the "First Black president". In becoming America's first African-American president, Barack Obama also simultaneously became America's second greatest emancipator, namely the emancipator of the descendants of the white slave owners and white slave drivers. Further it is my contention that such a task could only be accomplished by a polished African-American male embodying all of the sterling qualities of character that white American racists have dreaded might surface someday upon an irrefutable national platform which effectively by contrast spotlights the shameful brutality of their ancestors' beloved institution of American slavery. Although the two emancipation events are separated historically by some 143 years, sociologically they are inextricably connected together.
It cannot be denied that any nation founded upon the cornerstone of Institutional Slavery eventually must suffer through extreme sociological adjustment in order for it to continue its prosperity and leadership in an evolving world. I submit that this process was set in motion by the American Civil War and the original Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation, and is set out upon the path towards its ultimate conclusion by the election of president Obama.
In the case of the first Emancipation by Abraham Lincoln the trigger vehicle was a written presidential executive order, with the end result the physical freeing of a people.
In the case of the second Emancipation the trigger vehicle is the imagery of a respected erudite black man attending to and performing the task of being President of the United States, accompanied by appearances of his well adjusted attractive wife and family. These images constant in the mass media effectively provide an end result which works sociologically toward the elimination of the psychological burdens carried by most white people of various forms of stereotypical Negro phobia and hatred. Relieving this population of such burdens is in essence providing the greatest liberation/freedom possible. This I believe is Barack Obama's true legacy as America's first African-American president.