Is Barack's Victory For All of Us?

Photo: BarackObama.com


Regardless of your opinions about Barack Obama, you have to read Frank Rich's column in today's NY Times. In short, Hillary hasn't won anything yet and both she and the Republicans better start thinking about Plan B should Barack take Iowa. And that's not a long shot, just read Monday's Wall Street Journal.

Of course, this is very exciting. And as a person of color, I can't help but think what it will mean for this country's "blacks and browns" -- a term I learned recently -- to have one of their own rise to our nation's highest office.

But for all the gains made by people of color in this country, our communities still have a lot of progress to make. Unemployment, high-school drop out rates, incarceration, disease and unwanted pregnancy plague this segment of the population more than the white community.

So what will a black POTUS do to address that?

Have years of affirmative action and the visibility of other empowered brown figures -- Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Oprah, Jay-Z, Russell Simmons -- really shown our communities that there is another way of life to aspire to, that there is more to be given for and demanded from this country?

I'd say the answer is no. I'd say that sadly, these are unique examples from an otherwise disenfranchised people that are happy for the success of others and are content to eke out a living that affords them some of the material trappings of success. A black President is as distant a figure as the janitor who won the lottery. Yay, so long as it's one of us.

And that's the fine line the Obama campaign has to tread. On the one hand they have to talk about an America for everyone -- I call it the celluloid version of our country -- and then they have to talk to the other Americans, those who can't even afford to see the celluloid version of this country and who wouldn't recognize it anyway. They have to tell these other Americans that they have been dealt a raw deal, that they are still being oppressed, held back. They have to acknowledge that theirs is a legitimate (but surmountable?) plight.

An "everyone's welcome" dialogue now has to go the "you versus them" route.

How do you "ignore" party lines when racial lines never went away and are soon to be the new fissure that divides Americans, yet again, once this Conservative/Liberal nonsense goes away.

Let's focus on a "gray" America before we start talking about a purple reign.

A black President won't bring all blacks and browns into a privileged class. We're not all moving into the White House, we'll still have jobs to go to and bills to pay. But it should be the final reminder to all of us that we're not slaves anymore. We cannot settle for less. In terms of education, in terms of housing, in terms of our personal choices.

Even if Barack doesn't win, the onus is on all of us who are applauding him because we see in him the realization of a dream we all harbored at one point, to revitalize our communities with this same pioneer spirit that doesn't see color and obstacles, but opportunity, opportunity, opportunity.