'Yes We Can'- Obama supporters celebrate at Jillians
However we were still not united
TG Branfalt Jr.
Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: Election night
"I can't let you in here." The bouncer, "They-Call-Me-Fox," said.
"Why not?" I asked, extremely confused.
"We don't want Republicans in our crowd." "They-Call-Me-Fox" replied.
Wait. What?
"I was already in here. I've been here all night." I informed him.
"Well, I can't let you in now." He said.
Look, I have been booted out of bars before, but never for a charge as ignorant as "Republican." And because the allegation wasn't true of anyone in my party it was especially frustrating.
"Why not?" I inquired again.
"My boss told me not to let you in." His excuse had changed.
"I was already here, though. I am trying to write a story. I'm a journalist." I tried to reason with him.
His face went sour. "Well, I'll let you in," They-Call-Me-Fox had changed his tune, "But your buddies can't come in."
Of the, now four, guys standing behind me I only knew two of them, Jordan and Tim. The other two were Tim's cousins. Tim's cousins were a lot like Tim; flamboyant dress, unshaven faces and unkempt hair. The three share a similar interest in post-modern art, foreign films, noise-core and seeing the end of the Bush era. Not being allowed into this bar did not sit well with Tim's grizzly, gray haired, dressed in a jean suit cousin.
"This isn't a free country?" He shouted as Obama appeared on the twelve big screen TV's and the crowd in Jillian's went mad with excitement.
"It's a free country," They-Call-Me-Fox said calmly and smugly, "But this is private property." They-Call-Me-Fox had played the ace of spades.
As the verbal argument started to get more intense I chose to walk away. I had already missed the first five minutes of Obama's acceptance speech and I have 90.3 tuned in to my Explorer's radio. During the short walk, on this warm night, a night which forced a race-phobic nation to consider changing its' preconceived and ignorant views, my peers were stripped of their rights. They were insulted, not because they had harmed anyone, but because of the way they looked. They were classified and labeled. Wrongfully assumed. On this night of all nights, when republican was a dirty word.
It raises a question I have been asking internally since the nation started equating an Obama presidency to a full court press of the abolition of ism's. Will this presidency really bring us closer to a real social change? On this election nights of all nights we should have been unified. And on this election nights of all nights there was ignorance and injustice raging, at an upstate New York bar, by a twenty-something year old white male bouncer at the re-election party of Democratic district attorney David Sores, who earlier in the night rallied for justice. The acts perpetrated by Jillian's were elitist and class-ist, on a night when ism's were, for one moment, defeated.
"Why not?" I asked, extremely confused.
"We don't want Republicans in our crowd." "They-Call-Me-Fox" replied.
Wait. What?
"I was already in here. I've been here all night." I informed him.
"Well, I can't let you in now." He said.
Look, I have been booted out of bars before, but never for a charge as ignorant as "Republican." And because the allegation wasn't true of anyone in my party it was especially frustrating.
"Why not?" I inquired again.
"My boss told me not to let you in." His excuse had changed.
"I was already here, though. I am trying to write a story. I'm a journalist." I tried to reason with him.
His face went sour. "Well, I'll let you in," They-Call-Me-Fox had changed his tune, "But your buddies can't come in."
Of the, now four, guys standing behind me I only knew two of them, Jordan and Tim. The other two were Tim's cousins. Tim's cousins were a lot like Tim; flamboyant dress, unshaven faces and unkempt hair. The three share a similar interest in post-modern art, foreign films, noise-core and seeing the end of the Bush era. Not being allowed into this bar did not sit well with Tim's grizzly, gray haired, dressed in a jean suit cousin.
"This isn't a free country?" He shouted as Obama appeared on the twelve big screen TV's and the crowd in Jillian's went mad with excitement.
"It's a free country," They-Call-Me-Fox said calmly and smugly, "But this is private property." They-Call-Me-Fox had played the ace of spades.
As the verbal argument started to get more intense I chose to walk away. I had already missed the first five minutes of Obama's acceptance speech and I have 90.3 tuned in to my Explorer's radio. During the short walk, on this warm night, a night which forced a race-phobic nation to consider changing its' preconceived and ignorant views, my peers were stripped of their rights. They were insulted, not because they had harmed anyone, but because of the way they looked. They were classified and labeled. Wrongfully assumed. On this night of all nights, when republican was a dirty word.
It raises a question I have been asking internally since the nation started equating an Obama presidency to a full court press of the abolition of ism's. Will this presidency really bring us closer to a real social change? On this election nights of all nights we should have been unified. And on this election nights of all nights there was ignorance and injustice raging, at an upstate New York bar, by a twenty-something year old white male bouncer at the re-election party of Democratic district attorney David Sores, who earlier in the night rallied for justice. The acts perpetrated by Jillian's were elitist and class-ist, on a night when ism's were, for one moment, defeated.
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