My President is Black!

Posted by Kate Harding at Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Last night, I was in Grant Park for a little while, but I left shortly before CNN (which was showing on the Jumbotron) officially called it, because it occurred to me that A) I was so far back in the crowd, I'd only be watching Obama on TV anyway, and B) if I left then, I could actually get home in under an hour, and watch Obama on TV there with Al, who had staunchly refused to go anywhere near Grant Park. (Much as I was enjoying the celebration, I am so happy about that decision. I keep hearing reports of people who stayed having to walk miles away from the Loop before they could get any form of transportation, and not getting home until the wee hours. I would have been a miserable, blubbering mess by the end of that, instead of the happy, blubbering mess I already was.) 

So, when the networks actually did call it, I was in a cab headed north on Michigan Ave. Al called to tell me, but I'd already guessed, since all of downtown Chicago was exploding with shrieks of joy and blaring car horns. A few minutes later, I was stopped at a red light, and a car full of young black guys pulled up next to us, hooting and hollering like mad. I was on the opposite side of the car, with the windows up, so I just gave them the biggest grin/thumbs-up/vigorous nod I could. And then the guy in the passenger seat laughed with pure glee and shouted, "MY PRESIDENT IS BLACK! MY PRESIDENT IS BLACK!" At which point my grin turned to laughter, and I screamed, "WOOOOOO!" without really thinking about the fact that all the windows were closed, and I'd just made the cab driver's ears bleed.

That was my Most Memorable Moment of Election Night in Chicago, right there. So you can guess how fucking awesome it was to click through the Trib's photos of the celebration this morning and find this one right at the beginning:


That's the guy. He was fully in the car by the time I saw him, but I'm 99.9% certain that was him. 

His president is black. Mine too. Despite last night's horrible disappointments, that is so mind-blowingly exciting.

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