In Respnse To
I wrote this as a response to Lisa's blog over at BWBTT. I thought I would share. I thik I still have one more election piece in me. Its the one I've been trying to formulate since this all happened I hope to have it for you guys soon. By the time I have it the hoopla will be over, but I kinda perfer it that way, good things come to those who wait right?
Well Lisa, I will start with a comment on another blog I made
Well I always believed it WAS possible. I just didn't know when. For me he has showed many who thought like you that we can and will SUCCEED IN SPITE of all those things many in our community use as an excuse. I love it. From 3/5ths a man to 300plus electoral votes!Our president who’s ancestors where both the enslaved and the enslavers. That was the most powerful statement I heard last night on the news.It’s all powerful stuff and a beautiful story!
To me, the Obama narrative is not about him and about him at the same time. It is about the advancement of our strong and resilient race. It is about the marker in the sand. While I have great faith I understand some folks have been beaten and downtrodden enough that need something tangible to go on. These are the folks that my friends and I discussed, the ones who said THEY won’t let a black man have it. I remember my friends and I saying what THEY is this person talking about and then putting him/her into that he is one of those black folks.
There is Obama who is the first black president and then there will be Obama who is either a good, bad, or mediocre president. He will and has become the iconic figure for change and I don’t think that was an accident, Obama is a smart man he built his brand as any savvy marketing exec will tell you. The thing is it is human nature to admire and unhealthy human behavior to worship. At this point I think I will take Obama replacing Jordan as little black boys grow up, after all the psychosis in the black community will take much longer to get over than the few decades we have invested in it. Lets use the break-up analogy many say it takes the average person half the time they were with their mate to get over them when the separate, if that is a true formula then it will take America 250 years to get over how they have oppressed blacks. So are we substituting one idol for another in some black communities sure, but unlike the old idols of sports and entertainment in trying to emulate him, you will actually free your mind to be yourself. After all knowledge is power, so if young black boys start wanting to be public servants and lawyers and doctors that will force the exposure to the world and to the knowledge that wanting to be a basketball, rapper, or football star never could force.
As far as Michelle, I think the white media is excited by Michelle like they were about Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Its nice to have a young mother in the whie house it helps us all identify. What will she want to do, maybe her causes would be the same as mine if I were the first lady. There is a quiet strength about her that makes people want to know her or see what’s going on with her. I never thought she needed a retooling but I was pleased to see that it was not a major image overhaul. After all she has good bones. Personally the term the best to me has very little to do with creed and degrees and family lineage. I have never been into the black bourgeoisie scene it actually sickens me to try to say if someone is the best to offer because of the family they were born into.
In many ways I think Michelle and Barack are the best we have to offer, because they demonstrate how one builds a family of culture and creed. They show us what the great gandparents of the 4th generation degreed children look like. They are the best because they will create the best. Malia's and Sasha's children will be even better and their grandchildren will be poised to be the very same 4th generation degreed person that you eluded to be better than the Obama’s. Barack has shown he was the best in the fact that there has been no political pundit that has not agreed with how well run and organized his campaign was. They all agree whether they agree with his politics or not he has had one of the best run campaigns in the history of politics and the best in the history of modern day politics.
Thinking they are the best doesn’t mean that others are not the best as well. To me it’s like pretty girls there can be more than one and it’s all subjective and depends on what your criteria is. If all the pomp and circumstance some folks with a lot of money have excites you then no the Obamas are not the best, but if the ability to go from not being allowed in the DNC to becoming the President of the United States in 4 years excites you, you would have to say the he is the one of the best hands down and maybe arguable the best politician of any race. No connections no family ties nothing but a drive and will to serve the people.
If you think it is required to be from money then the Obamas aren’t the best if you think it required to have drive and determination the Obamas are one of the best.
Lastly, I did not cry on 11/4. I didn’t feel overwhelmed. I felt proud to be an American, and unlike many blacks I have felt that pride before. I have often been accused of drinking the kool-aide or whatever you want to call it. You see based on my background I should have never believed Barack was possible, but I believed he was possible even before he ran. I remember telling a date that I believed Senator Obama could do it, at the time he was still saying he wouldn’t. I thought it’s because he wants more experience, after seeing what I seen I know a Barack with more experience may have been able to take more states, well if he’d change that middle name.
I have always believed anything is possible but that is because much like the Obamas I have had doors opened up for me, that not many like us, workign class, have open up. I have benefited from free private education at one of the nation's top unversity and the top in my state, I have benefited from my hard work in my professional life and have been rewarded at almost every step of my journey, so to me an Obama presidency was tangible long before it materialized. I had benefited from the America that many blacks don’t see, the meritocracy, where hard work is rewarded. So I knew if he worked hard he would win.
The thing is I did not cry and was not overwhelmed until…until I spoke with my mother, my mother who went to segregated elementary school in the Jim Crow south in a small rural oil town. My mother who was raised by a step father who loved her like his own but still felt unloved because her real father never called, my mother who’s America was not a meritocracy and her hardwork was often unnoticed. My mother who, until my adult life, thought that America didn’t care about us. That America would find a way NOT to reward us. My mother who even though she watcedh my dad do impossible things at a young age chalked it up to having to sell ones soul or not being good person to get those things. To my mother, I was her mini-Barack showing her as I lived my life and climbed the ladder and traveled to new cities and across the world that things were possible when you really worked hard and set your sites on them. So when I talked to her I felt like this election removed her last doubts about blacks being able to survive in spite of those horrible isms that still exists in a post –Obama world. I cried because I know she thought some things we would be able to do, but for what ever reason she still believed we couldn’t break the glass ceiling on other things, like politics. Barack broke that ceiling for her and I cried because I knew his presidency would impact how she lives her life at 54 years of age.
Ok I’m done, this really should be a blog but this is your topic not mine.
-OG
Well Lisa, I will start with a comment on another blog I made
Well I always believed it WAS possible. I just didn't know when. For me he has showed many who thought like you that we can and will SUCCEED IN SPITE of all those things many in our community use as an excuse. I love it. From 3/5ths a man to 300plus electoral votes!Our president who’s ancestors where both the enslaved and the enslavers. That was the most powerful statement I heard last night on the news.It’s all powerful stuff and a beautiful story!
To me, the Obama narrative is not about him and about him at the same time. It is about the advancement of our strong and resilient race. It is about the marker in the sand. While I have great faith I understand some folks have been beaten and downtrodden enough that need something tangible to go on. These are the folks that my friends and I discussed, the ones who said THEY won’t let a black man have it. I remember my friends and I saying what THEY is this person talking about and then putting him/her into that he is one of those black folks.
There is Obama who is the first black president and then there will be Obama who is either a good, bad, or mediocre president. He will and has become the iconic figure for change and I don’t think that was an accident, Obama is a smart man he built his brand as any savvy marketing exec will tell you. The thing is it is human nature to admire and unhealthy human behavior to worship. At this point I think I will take Obama replacing Jordan as little black boys grow up, after all the psychosis in the black community will take much longer to get over than the few decades we have invested in it. Lets use the break-up analogy many say it takes the average person half the time they were with their mate to get over them when the separate, if that is a true formula then it will take America 250 years to get over how they have oppressed blacks. So are we substituting one idol for another in some black communities sure, but unlike the old idols of sports and entertainment in trying to emulate him, you will actually free your mind to be yourself. After all knowledge is power, so if young black boys start wanting to be public servants and lawyers and doctors that will force the exposure to the world and to the knowledge that wanting to be a basketball, rapper, or football star never could force.
As far as Michelle, I think the white media is excited by Michelle like they were about Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Its nice to have a young mother in the whie house it helps us all identify. What will she want to do, maybe her causes would be the same as mine if I were the first lady. There is a quiet strength about her that makes people want to know her or see what’s going on with her. I never thought she needed a retooling but I was pleased to see that it was not a major image overhaul. After all she has good bones. Personally the term the best to me has very little to do with creed and degrees and family lineage. I have never been into the black bourgeoisie scene it actually sickens me to try to say if someone is the best to offer because of the family they were born into.
In many ways I think Michelle and Barack are the best we have to offer, because they demonstrate how one builds a family of culture and creed. They show us what the great gandparents of the 4th generation degreed children look like. They are the best because they will create the best. Malia's and Sasha's children will be even better and their grandchildren will be poised to be the very same 4th generation degreed person that you eluded to be better than the Obama’s. Barack has shown he was the best in the fact that there has been no political pundit that has not agreed with how well run and organized his campaign was. They all agree whether they agree with his politics or not he has had one of the best run campaigns in the history of politics and the best in the history of modern day politics.
Thinking they are the best doesn’t mean that others are not the best as well. To me it’s like pretty girls there can be more than one and it’s all subjective and depends on what your criteria is. If all the pomp and circumstance some folks with a lot of money have excites you then no the Obamas are not the best, but if the ability to go from not being allowed in the DNC to becoming the President of the United States in 4 years excites you, you would have to say the he is the one of the best hands down and maybe arguable the best politician of any race. No connections no family ties nothing but a drive and will to serve the people.
If you think it is required to be from money then the Obamas aren’t the best if you think it required to have drive and determination the Obamas are one of the best.
Lastly, I did not cry on 11/4. I didn’t feel overwhelmed. I felt proud to be an American, and unlike many blacks I have felt that pride before. I have often been accused of drinking the kool-aide or whatever you want to call it. You see based on my background I should have never believed Barack was possible, but I believed he was possible even before he ran. I remember telling a date that I believed Senator Obama could do it, at the time he was still saying he wouldn’t. I thought it’s because he wants more experience, after seeing what I seen I know a Barack with more experience may have been able to take more states, well if he’d change that middle name.
I have always believed anything is possible but that is because much like the Obamas I have had doors opened up for me, that not many like us, workign class, have open up. I have benefited from free private education at one of the nation's top unversity and the top in my state, I have benefited from my hard work in my professional life and have been rewarded at almost every step of my journey, so to me an Obama presidency was tangible long before it materialized. I had benefited from the America that many blacks don’t see, the meritocracy, where hard work is rewarded. So I knew if he worked hard he would win.
The thing is I did not cry and was not overwhelmed until…until I spoke with my mother, my mother who went to segregated elementary school in the Jim Crow south in a small rural oil town. My mother who was raised by a step father who loved her like his own but still felt unloved because her real father never called, my mother who’s America was not a meritocracy and her hardwork was often unnoticed. My mother who, until my adult life, thought that America didn’t care about us. That America would find a way NOT to reward us. My mother who even though she watcedh my dad do impossible things at a young age chalked it up to having to sell ones soul or not being good person to get those things. To my mother, I was her mini-Barack showing her as I lived my life and climbed the ladder and traveled to new cities and across the world that things were possible when you really worked hard and set your sites on them. So when I talked to her I felt like this election removed her last doubts about blacks being able to survive in spite of those horrible isms that still exists in a post –Obama world. I cried because I know she thought some things we would be able to do, but for what ever reason she still believed we couldn’t break the glass ceiling on other things, like politics. Barack broke that ceiling for her and I cried because I knew his presidency would impact how she lives her life at 54 years of age.
Ok I’m done, this really should be a blog but this is your topic not mine.
-OG
Comments
Like you and especially as a parent, I am thrilled that Obama will be who the kids look up to instead of the Jordans, Kobes and whoever else. Ideally kids would have strong role models within their homes but that is not always the case.
I love sports and music like the next man, but my goal was always to rule the world!!
Elevating our brother, eliminated our excuses.
This was the most POWERFUL line in this blog to me & it's exacted to what I've stated all along. I did not cry until the next day after the election either. But also,it wasn't for me...it was for pride in being American once again & affirmation that change comes if you WANT to.
T.