For now, Upton predicts that most observers will revel in the historic moment. That's what he's doing. Like Obama, Upton is the child of a white parent and a black parent. They married in Indiana in 1967, just months before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state bans on interracial marriage. Obama's win validates his family's experience.
"We are excited about this," he said. "There was a sense that as of 11 o'clock [election] night, we count."
For people of color, immigrants and for many women, the promise of the American dream rang hollow until now, he said.
"The promise of America that is laid out in the canon of political documents, with each new generation, those promises touch more people," he said. "Even though the legal framework was there, this is the first clear manifestation that this is ours too. The symbolic importance of that cannot be overestimated."
Emily Hoppe, who is white, said that triumph was meaningful to her too.
"I always felt like anybody interested in African-American studies or women's studies was seen as on the fringe," said Hoppe, a 21-year-old senior at Johns Hopkins University. "But suddenly we are part of the mainstream. Now, I feel like if a white girl wants to read a biography of a black man, that is not seen as different or strange."
Hoppe's boyfriend worked as an Obama field organizer in rural Michigan and Indiana, where he met white voters who were hostile about the idea of voting for a black candidate. While frustrating, such remarks help people tackle the taboo topic of race, Hoppe said.
"There are pundits who want to deny the idea that racism still exists," she said. "To say Barack Obama's presidency means we don't have racism would be false and not helpful to this discussion. I think that having race be part of our national discussion is important."
"That Obama's victory would not have been possible without white voters is itself a challenge to perceptions," said Amar Dixit, 21, a senior at Hopkins. "A lot of people said he couldn't win in Western Pennsylvania or Ohio because voters were racist. But he did. I think that's monumental in itself."
Dixit, the son of Indian immigrant parents, said for first-generation immigrants, Obama shows that anything is possible. "Really, who ever thought that Barack Hussein Obama could be president?" he said.
But Dixit said he fears that the huge expectations of an Obama presidency might be too great a burden, particularly with regard to foreign policy, the most important issue to Dixit.
