Culture Corner: Breaking Barriers

By Michael Fox
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

I don't know if you saw Sarah Silverman's video, "The Great Schlep," over this election season, but to me, it was one of the funniest and scarily true pieces of humor that I saw over this roller coaster two year election season.

In the video, Silverman implores the Jewish youth of America to go down to

Florida and persuade their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama. She deems it necessary due to the electoral importance of Florida while at the same time referring to the distrust that a number of older Jewish people apparently had towards Obama this past election season.

Blame it on generational differences, the false emails that circulated describing Obama as a Muslim (as if the religion of any candidate should be an issue in the first place), a false perception of his policy towards Israel, or any number of factors, but there was definitely a degree of mistrust towards Barack Obama by some sectors of the Jewish population.

However, what should be recognized now is that not only does the recent election represent a political milestone for the African-American community, but a milestone for all minority groups, including ours, in this country. I don't know how many times in a discussion someone has mentioned the inane statement, "A Jew could never be President," but this past election shows that this country will really look past biases and truly evaluate someone based on their qualifications and character. Why couldn't a Jew be President now? I'm sure the election of an African-American seemed beyond impossible less than fifty years ago.

A new era has opened in politics, one in which people are nominated or elected based on what they can do and who they are, not based on what they look like or believe in. Now all I hope to see is every group in this country, every member of our generation, seize this wonderful opportunity. Make your voice heard, because it will now be judged on what it is saying, not necessarily based on who is saying it.

Michael is a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst studying political science and Spanish. He enjoys writing, skiing, movies, and summer camp.

[Posted 11/27/08]