We got a brother in the White House. Whether Republican or Democrat, male or female, this was a victory for all Blacks, a moment of pride. President Barack Hussein Obama became the first Black president of the United States.
Finally, America would see what we already knew and what others have been afraid of. The Black man is the most powerful man in the world. And given the chance, we can outperform anyone we’re up against.
It’s been proven time and time again. Look at Tiger Woods in golf and Venus and Serena Williams in tennis. They dominated a field that many Whites said Blacks were not intelligent enough to master. Look at Oprah Winfrey in media. The minute she hit syndication, she swallowed up Phil Donahue, the biggest talk show host around at the time.
She went on to become the wealthiest woman in the entertainment industry, despite the odds against her. Blacks like the late Michael Jackson and Berry Gordy have dominated the music industry for years. And let’s not forget the late Johnnie Cochran.
Los Angeles prosecutors had O. J. Simpson thinking they had a slam dunk case against him. But the glove didn’t fit, so the jury had to acquit. Given the opportunity, (although with some exceptions), the Black man has continuously out performed other races who were taught that we were inferior.
So, it is natural that many believed that once President Obama got into office, everything would change for African-Americans. We were finally in the big house and there was a new sheriff in town. And to some extent, they have been right.
Obama has made some major decisions that have helped a lot of Blacks keep their homes, since we were the hardest hit by the mortgage crisis. But we still have a long way to go and there is still a lot of work to be done. President Obama inherited a mess when he walked into office.
We were staring down the greatest recession since the Great Depression. We had just come out of an oil crisis. We were in the middle of a war on terrorism.
The unemployment rate was already incredibly high. Banks were going belly up. The mortgage industry was failing. The public school system was failing.
The auto industry was failing. And the U. S. government was broke. No other president, since Franklin D. Roosevelt, had inherited such a mess and no other president has had as much to prove.
Obama not only had to conquer terrorism while trying to save a country on the brink of ruin, he had to prove to Blacks he was still a brother in touch with his blackness and to the Whites that he was not so in touch he couldn’t be fair. So, maybe that’s why he thought it would be a good idea to solve the racial issue between Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crawley over a few beers on the White House lawn. It was just what some had been expecting after putting a brother in the White House.
But what many really wanted when they elected Obama was change, real change. They wanted jobs. They wanted to keep their homes.
They wanted the equality we have been waiting nearly 400 years to see. They wanted racism to go away and the playing field to be equal. Many are still optimistic about seeing the change Obama promised.
But some have given up hope and become critics. Obama has done a lot in his first year and passed many measures that will help Blacks. And while he’s good, he’s not God. It’s unreasonable to expect the man to solve the biggest economic crisis we have had in the past 60 years and erase 400 years of injustice in one or even four years in the White House.
It’s just not going to happen. Maybe, like the theme song to the television show The Jeffersons, we are “moving on up.” Maybe we do “finally have our piece of the pie.” But it is only a piece.
There is a whole lot more left to be conquered, to over come. And considering all that has been accomplished by one man during his first year in the White House, it makes me wonder if all of us would step to the plate, what might happen in our house, in our schools and in our communities. We have the power to make a difference.
But it’s going to take all of us, working together, to do it. Only then will we really see the change we are looking for.