Me First

After first reading this article on the first African-American woman to be a Jewish rabbi I thought, "What doors has Obama opened for blacks." It was followed by the realization that Alysa Stanton and Barack Obama have worked for years to attain their accomplishments.

In fact, Alysa was working towards her goal long before Obama became president.

While the question of her goal being attainable only after the election of the first black president was suductive it is obviously a dead-end. In this instance the two may or may not be mutually exclusive but it seems unlikely that all like events will be the same.

Now as to why it is pointed out and whether we will get past this American heritage and tradition of pointing out negro, black, woman, Latina etc etc "Firsts" - that's fertile ground.