You raise a number completely valid points that, frankly, I didn’t think about (other than Montana’s Native American population) when I was writing my post. It’s true that Montana does have its own brand of diversity; I only wonder how often people seek out that diversity. We certainly didn’t grow up in a rural area. We grew up in the Big Sky State’s most diverse, gentrified city. And yet how often did I make it a point to seek out the Russian or Hmong perspective? Not nearly enough. Even in our liberal utopia of Missoula, I think people, for the most part, were content with associating mostly with their own kind. Even the Jews I know were limited to you guys and probably the Byocks. Regrettably, even at Hellgate, most of the minority students I knew were treated with polite indifference. It wasn’t until college that I really had a Native American I knew well enough to call a good friend, and sadly, that was no one’s fault by my own.

On election night, I was obsessed with Montana flipping blue, even after the election had been called for Obama. The fact that it stayed red, and California voting to ban same sex marriage, almost put a damper on what was otherwise a magical night, one that had me wiping away tears every 20 minutes, (especially when Rep. John Lewis said he wasn’t going to cry because he had used up all his tears over the years dreaming of this moment).

Afterward, I wondered why I was so obsessed with Montana flipping, and I realized it was that I [i]wanted[/i] to believe the state was more tolerant and open to change than maybe it really was. I’d heard too many people, including many of my own friends, drop the N-word into conversation over the years, and even when they began to understand that was no longer acceptable, the switched to code words and obvious falsehoods to make their point about blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians. I wanted to believe the state had gone through some some of the self-discovery I had.

Maybe it will. But it’s not there quite yet.

Which isn’t to say that every person who voted for McCain is uncomfortable with a black president. It’s important to point out it was probably about abortion for some, experience for others, taxes for a few (misguided) souls, and guns for plenty. But some of it was about race. If nothing else, I’m really glad the Democratic primary dragged on so long because I think a lot of people got a chance to see Obama up close during his trips to Butte and Billings and Missoula and, while most of them were either young or true believers already, when they take with them the belief that he’s not the boogy man Sarah Palin tried to make him out to be, that’s how we make progress.

This post has now made me wish I could go back in time and sit with the Hmong kids in the Hellgate cafeteria, if only for a day, just to talk to them about what their lives are like. I bet we could have an awesome Harry Potter discussion.