What exactly does it mean for the country to have its first Black President in the 21st century? First it means that it took too long for it to happen. Just think about it. America is supposed to be a country that represents unity, equality, and diversity. Our country has always been founded on principles that everyone is created equal.
Somewhere down the line, people determined that to be Black was to be inferior, lower class, and dirty. Racism took the country by storm and at one point made it almost impossible for anyone to believe that a Black person could ever hold the highest position in the land.
Who would have ever thought a Black man and his family would live in the White House, which was built by slaves. Wasn’t it just yesterday that Blacks were forced to sit in the back of the bus, drink from separate water fountains, be served meals at the back of the restaurant, Black children could not go to school with the White children, and their parents could not even vote?
Now this country has come full circle and Whites will now be opening doors for a Black man, serving him meals, protecting him with their precious lives, waiting on him hand and foot, not to mention a room full of people will take notice of him with a salute when he enters, and ultimately call him Mr. President.
We have finally reached the point where we should have always been. The vote of the White population remarkably put Obama in the White House because they were willing to look past his skin color and elect the most qualified candidate for the job.
It’s ironic to think that the Whites who did not vote for him were the minority in the election. Babies all over the country will be born or grow up without really understanding or comprehending that something amazing has happened, which in a way should be that way considering the values this nation was founded on. Not long ago it was a foreign thought that a Black man could become President.
Black babies will now only know one thing and that is their President looks like them and they can also be like him or surpass his accomplishments. It will not be a far fetched thought that they can become President because they will have experienced having a Black man as President during their childhood years.
Perhaps the greatest concept for me about the Barack Obama phenomenon is that Black people have no more excuses. They can no longer pull out the race card or use their race as a crutch as to why they can’t become that manager of the company or that executive of the corporation.
Sure racism still exists and can be a temporary setback, but a man named Barack Obama has proven that beating the odds can be done with hard work, determination, and refusing to take no for an answer in his quest to becoming president. Obama has helped to prove that Blacks are just as competent, well spoken, intelligent, and charismatic as anyone else.
No longer can Blacks be considered inferior or not qualified for something. You can do or become anything you choose to. The sky is the limit and the possibilities are endless. Like President Obama said on the night of his election, “if there was anyone out there who doubted that all things are possible tonight is your answer.”
What people need to understand is that Obama is more than just a Black man. He is a man that has managed to bring everybody together and injected politics into the mainstream and reached out to a large group of people who never showed any interest in government because they felt disconnected and politicians were not relating to them.
Obama has touched in some way every race, religion, age, and area of the globe like no other President has been able to. His brilliance is evident, yet he still manages to relate and inspire all people that a better day is on the horizon if everyone works together.
Obama is a man that represents what this country consists of and that is diversity. The first 43 Presidents have been White, how diverse is that?
Now the time has finally come where this country’s leader literally represents what America’s foundation was always supposed to have been based on, which is equality- equality in the schools, in the restaurants, on the buses, at the movie theatres, at the voting booths, and equality even in the White House.