I don t know… I guess I felt like doing a little thinking
this morning. And I was just pondering
the idea of why Obama might have become the first black President. Perhaps it could’ve been the fact that he
never grew up with the inherited burden that most blacks have to learn to grapple with – Where do we hail
from? From the time Obama was birthed,
he knew who he was and where he came from.
He was able to trace his lineage.
His dad was right off the boat, so he knew where the boat carried him
from – exactly where he/his people came from.
Not the normal hang-ups that
you and I have learned to digest forcibly like a child forced to eat spinach. As like with spinach, and yeah it’s good for
you. Learning that we are descendants of
slavery is as hard to swallow as spinach - but it’s good to know, although
still hard to get it to go down – regardless of all the benefits.
Obama had the normal issues of growing up as many of us do, quite
possibly 99 problems, but knowing who he was wasn’t one of them. Not the normal licking of Civil War wounds,
fears, frustrations, and the collective baggage that comes with growing up Black
in America.
He was free to use and open his mind to other possibilities
and not have the insurmountable hurdle that many can’t get around or over – being Black! We run up to the hurdles of being black and
just don t know how to attack it. A
hurdle is what it is… something impeding your way and there is only one legal way to topple it – face it head
on.
He has never been the typical NEGRO OR NIGGER/NIGGA. He wasn’t imbued from conception with the
bad habit of “stinking thinking”. I
cannot help but to wonder if that is what helped him to get into office in the
first place. Even the run of the mill Klu
Klux Klansman knew that they couldn’t hold that platitude over Obama’s
head. He could dodge that bullet every
time. How wonderful that must be to not
be a Nigger and not ever have to quibble
about whether you should or should not put on that title – whether it is a
Nigger or Nigga – Either way – you are still associated and identify as such. The memory of being a Nigger is a shackle
that has to be broken mentally.
So, when I see Obama get his pimp walk on and don’t have a nigga care in the world, I can’t help
but to attribute that confidence and fleetness of foot as he jaunts down the
stairs of Air Force One; I think to myself that he is one of, if not the blackest man I know.
I pray to one day as a people that we find ourselves to know
that type of FREEDOM.
