Electoral Vote Count: Obama 349 / McCain 163
Popular Vote Count: Obama 52% = 63,423,689 / McCain 46% - 56,079,786

Age
18-29: (18% of total vote) Obama 66% / McCain 32%
30-44: (29% of total vote) Obama 52% / McCain 46%
45-64: (37% of total vote) Obama 50% / McCain 49%
65 and Older: (16% of total vote) Obama 45% / McCain 53%

Highest Voter Turnout Since 1964.

Jessie Jacson Video Interview

This has been my first time voting. Or at least the first time I have been interested enough and inspired enough to take the time to become more educated and vote. I feel like my concern for the future of my country has increased because of this election and this is certainly the first time I have sat anxiously waiting for polls to come in and the states to be determined blue or red. I was encouraged to vote and become educated by my class-mates, my teachers, my parents, my family, complete strangers, everyone realized what an important election this was because this election stood, at the very least, as a hope or opportunity for change and diversion from the ineffective “politics-as-usual.”

Ironically, or due to sweet serendipity, as I was attempting to simultaneously watch the live online news feed of the election and catch up on reading for my American Lit class I passed a line in “Black Boy”, an autobiography of Richard Wright’s life in the racist south, in which he recalled an political cartoon placed in a local newspaper by a white-women’s group of a drawing of a gaudy Blackman sitting in the white house with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and a heading that stated something along the lines “All the Blackman wants is to sit in the white house and ruin our women”. This book was written only about 50 years ago. As I read through this story of hatred and racism I have an extremely hard time believing that such awful things were ever permitted by anyone, they seem like exaggerations and impossibilities. This has got me thinking.

I think it is very interesting how race has been downplayed and minimized throughout this election. We are all trying to convince ourselves that we are not tied to stereotypes and prejudice. We try to convince ourselves that Americans are voting based on policies and beliefs of the parties and unaffected by age, gender, and color. I believed this, as I am to some degree naïve to the fact that many voters grew up in a time when racism and sexism and other isms were the norm and accepted. I was deeply surprised and some what disappointed by the post election media focus on Obama’s election as the first black president. I do not thing that is what this election was about. It was not about America proving that they could elect a black president, it was about Americans voting for who they thought the best candidate regardless of color, age, or gender. Obama acknowledged the race issue in his acceptance speech but did not dwell on it, Obama really focused on Americans coming together from all sorts of backgrounds so that WE can all work together and be defined as Americans not African-Americans or Latino-Americans. After all, if your think about it, America could not have avoided in this election either the first "black" president, or the first women in the white house as either Palin as the VP or Hillary Clinton as the president if she would have beaten Obama in the Democratic race.

I think that defining people within stereotypes is becoming a more and more foreign concept over time with each passing generation. The generation that was born in the 20s grew up and the peak and surronded by racism, but then attempted to minimized it to their children of the 40s, who minimized if further to their children of the 80s, until we have reached the current generation in which it will further decrease and eventually become a modern non-issue, but rather an always existent and remembered failure of our past to learn from. At least this is what we hope for, that people will not be made uncomfortable by these characteristics which make one person black and one white, one female and one male, one gay and one straight, but that we will be able to acknowledge such differences and accept them simply as what they are, without expanded insinuation or additional associations. There is nothing wrong with differences and as Americans we can accept and celebrate differences rather than try and make everyone conform to a single model citizen.

I recognize the significance of this election, but still was very surprised by the medias Black-pride over-kill of a moment that could have just as easily been more about American-Pride and hope for a better future. I hope that Obama was elected based on his policies, personality, qualifications, inspiration, and potential to be the best candidate in this election, not because of his color and definitely not to prove that American is capable of electing a black president.

I know my reasons for voting and I hope that Obama will live up to all of our hopes for change and improvement and growth for America and that we will come together for the sake of our country and for the sake our future behind the leadership of such an inspirational leader.