Enjoy your country, sucker!
Now, while an Obama Administration makes it impossible for black people to be cool, it does not guarantee white coolness, it just makes it possible. This is an important distinction. It means that we can still screw this up. Just stay focused. In the wise words of former professor of Race Relations at Harvard University Soren Bowie, "When you're not 'The Man,' you can be...the man." We're not "The Man" anymore, we're not keeping anyone down. The Man is keeping us down. We're on the outside. The edge! We're the ones who get screwed, and we're the ones for whom the system does not work. Whiteys,Everything in my life has been leading up to this moment.
Now, it would be really easy for us (you) to ruin this for the rest of us (me), so pay attention. First and foremost, White People, stop doing whatever it is that you're doing. It's not cool, trust me. While you've certainly had the market cornered on "hip irony" for the last few years, you still have no idea what it means to be cool. As research for this column, I hung out at a Starbucks listening to a bunch of white people talk the other day, and you know what they discussed? Fuel efficiency. Indie-rockThat's probably a direct quote from an actual episode. That's how cool we can be. Watch Mad Men, rent some Bogart flicks, and start taking notes. Are you taking notes? Dammit, White People, that was a test and you failed. Never take notes, note-taking isn't cool. Put the pen down. Just watch those movies and start living your life like those guys. Wander around in a fucking suit, smoke cigarettes and just be generally unimpressed by everyone. And
Nobody said it'd be easy. Chump.
Friends, the naysayers are going to have a whole lot of things to say on this issue.(Things like "nay," for example.) These are people who think white people had their chance at coolness and blew it. They'll say we've been uncool for too long, that there's no way we could turn this around. They may even argue that our lack of coolness is due to some inherent genetic flaw. They'll say, in accordance with our biological makeup, we simply cannot be cool. And you know what I say to that? Yes We Can. Yes We Can.*[Full Disclosure: While the exact specifics of my race and heritage are still up in the air I am, for the purposes of this article, 'White.' Again, that is strictly for the sake of this article. Call me 'White' to my face, I dare you. See what happens. See what fucking happens.]