In his journey to the White House, Barack Obama demonstrated that he could be, in the words of Dr. King, not merely "a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus," creating a coalition that called us to "look after not only ourselves but each other."

To be sure, Obama's coalition is an imperfect one. Proposition 8's passage reminds us that we still fall too readily into the categories of "us and them"--categories in which subjugated groups fight against each other, rather than alongside each other.

Still, Obama has set us on a new path in America's long journey toward justice and equality for all. A path driven by the "common stake we all have in one another." His work is our work, and it is change we must build on. We must commit ourselves to a new kind of social justice movement in which our identities remain intact, but do not obscure our views of the larger picture where we can see, and unify around, antisubordination principles with the power to liberate us all from the firm grasp of oppression.