Electing a black president was probably the only coup America could pull off.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It's fair to say that white America wouldn't have elected an African-American president without the integrating effect of black music - from Louis Armstrong to hip-hop - and black drama and fiction, commercial as much as 'serious.'
In my wildest dreams, I never would have thought we'd come to the point where were talking about the re-election of a black president.
There was a lot of feeling that with an African-American president, life on the South Side of Chicago would be radically different.
I would have thought that a woman would have become president before a black man.
After Obama became president, I realized that black people could not have put him in the White House - it had to be a collective effort of everybody in the country.
The symbolic value of having an African-American president has certainly eased some racial tensions in America, but they're not gone.
When President Kennedy was elected, many black Americans, like so many Americans, were captivated by his youth and energy and promise and were especially hopeful that he might move the country in a new direction on civil rights.
I never thought we'd ever have a black president. President Obama has done such a tremendous job... He just has been unable to get what he needs to be moved at the level it should be moved.
Black people have been qualified to be president for hundreds of years. George Washington Carver could have been president. I could go on with a list of black men that were qualified to be the president of the United States. So the Obama victory is progress for white people.
I always believed there would be an African-American president. It was something I'd dreamed about, thought about, but certainly did not believe would happen in my lifetime.