Bill Clinton and Racial Reconciliation - Essay Example

For the first time in history, America put in office the first African American as their 44th president. This was a great milestone and a step in the right direction towards the issues that Bill Clinton had mentioned. It now seemed that Americans were ready to give opportunities to other races that had been dominantly occupied by one race; the world was in surprised and the celebrations unceasing as President Barack Obama was sworn into office. It was finally a new dawn in the land of America and the struggle for equality had been achieved?

Had it really? Many argue that it is not possible for one man to change the perspectives of a population, and I agree with them. Racial reconciliation has not really taken place in America yet, it is still a work in progress, but headed in the positive direction. President Obama’s win was a revelation, that people do want change. He garnered majority of the votes to defeat his opponent Mitt Romney. Despite his landslide win, the Americans did not vote for him in the same overwhelming numbers across the different races that are represented.

From the African American population, 93 percent voted for President Obama as compared to 41 percent from the whites. The other 59 percent favored Mitt Romney, this goes to show that, people were voting mainly, for their own and that is why the votes of the black population was able to swing the vote towards their chosen one. It is clear from this that difference in racial backgrounds is still an issue that the Americans have to deal with. While it was thought that the election of President Barack Obama meant that, the black community had been fully accepted in America, statistics prove otherwise.

A research carried out recently by a Stanford University professor, Jon Krosnick, showed that fifty one percent of the Americans still exhibited anti-black attitude explicitly. This is in comparison to forty-eight percent in 2008, the same research revealed that fifty six percent of the American population harbor anti-black attitude implicitly as compared to forty-nine percent in 2008. This brings to light that the different races in America have not fully accepted each other and to make matters worse, it seems like the divide is getting worse.

The Declaration of Independence states that all American citizens are equal but the reality on the ground shows that a good number of the population does not agree with that just yet (Lawson and Franklin, 295). However, a population of the Americans especially, the blacks seems to think that President Obama is not addressing the issue of race as people thought he would. He has been openly criticized by some African Americans due to what seems as his effort to stay away from the talk of racial divide and the issues that need to be addressed.

It is crucial for the issues that are brought about by different races to be addressed to avoid a repeat of history. The worst crimes against humanity were because of indifference towards others. With the deep feelings of negativity still rooted in most Americans it might only be a matter of time before another injustice against a race occur (Wiesel). On the contrary, others might say that, racial reconciliation has already taken place. This is because a couple of years ago, the election of a black president would have been unheard of.

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