An open letter to the American People on the morning after the election of Barack Obama:

You’re doing it wrong.

This morning, as I listen to commentator after commentator, and read article after article, I am filled not with the feeling of elation that I anticipated when I went to bed last night, but with a growing frustration and stunned disbelief. The dust has yet to settle, the cheers and celebrations are still going on; it will be hours and days and perhaps weeks before anything else grabs our attention away from this election, from the events that led up to it and the incredible things that may happen as a result of it. And yet, already, we are screwing it up.

Already the lines are being drawn, the division being widened, stupid cultural-centric comments are being made. And all with the very best of intentions. I feel like shouting, “What is WRONG with you people?? You have completely missed the most important point of possibly the most important event in the history of our country!” As columnists, commentators, people in the street all voice the wide range of emotions after such an historic event, again and again the main focus is the same: that with the election of Barack Obama, black Americans now feel enfranchised.

Are we all really this blind?

Let’s get something straight. Barack Obama is not going to be our next President because black people voted for a black man. Just in case you weren't paying attention, let me repeat that: Barack Obama is not going to be our next President because black people voted for a black man.

Barack Obama is going to be our next President because the majority of the American people who voted for a Presidential candidate voted for him. A lot of those voters are black. A lot more of them are a lot of other colors, and the vast majority of them are white. Barack Obama is going to be our next President because for the first time in the history of our country, a black man was nominated, a black man ran, a black man swayed the people, and the majority of the American people voted for a black man. Did they vote for him because he was black? Sure, some of them. And some of the people who voted for Senator McCain did so because he is white. But the majority of people who vote, vote for the candidate that they think will do the best job whether it be for the voter, causes and issues the voter supports, or the country as a whole. And the majority of those people voted for Barack Obama. And that meant voting for a black man.

The most important aspect of this event is not the fact that so many black Americans now feel enfranchised, or that they now have a real voice in our government. It is not the fact that black citizens of America can feel righteously proud of their incredible accomplishments in the face of overwhelming adversity over the course of generations. And it is not even the fact that for the first time ever, black parents across the country can say to their children, “See? You can grow up to be President!” and know that their children may actually believe them.

The hypocrisy of discrimination in a country founded on the belief “that all men are created equal” does not hit those discriminated against in a “surgical strike.” Inequality itself does not discriminate. Inequality damages all of us. When we say to our children that we live in a land of freedom and equal opportunity, and our children then go out into that land to see that the reality is quite different, that child is damaged. When a child observes that so often only lip service is paid to the ideals of the country in which we live; that opportunities are so often offered or withheld based upon discrimination, or when a child observes discrimination in action, whether we are the source or the target or merely the bystander who allows it to happen, that child is damaged. Whether our children learn to discriminate against others, or they learn to expect discrimination as a matter of course, or they learn to stand by and let it happen, our children, and ultimately we ourselves, are damaged. But for generations in this country, dedicated people of both genders, all colors, all races, with experiences and backgrounds that run the gamut, have worked and struggled and sacrificed, sometimes ultimately, to stop the damage, to end discrimination, and to make the words “that all men are created equal” finally ring with truth instead of hypocrisy. At this incredible point in our history as a nation, let us not remake the mistake of once again dividing ourselves into tribes even as we discuss our accomplishment.

The absolutely most important thing to come out of this election is simply this: For the first time in the history of our country, ANY American citizen can say to their child, “You can grow up to be President.” and have a reasonable expectation that their children will believe them.

Just as our children are our future, we are their present. We’ve made a good start on getting it right. Let’s not screw it up now.