Obama’s Letter

This is really special. 

A New Beginning

President-Elect Barack Obama.

Today marks a triumphant and historical day in the lives of many Americans and citizens around the world.  Last night, Senator Barack Obama from Illinois clenched the office for the Presidency of the United States of America.  Undoubtedly a major and very emotional experience for many African Americans and people of color, this election cycle has shown us all that the United States is finally displaying the progression that we have so long yearned for.

As I sat and watched the results come in last night one thing that I kept thinking about was this historic, and often ugly, campaign that has plagued us for so many months.  I am glad that the issues of race and gender were brought into US mainstream consciousness.  Hopefully, this often painful display of the incredible discrimination that is still rampant in US culture will help us continue to have those important, everyday conversations that have led us to such a transformational time in our nation’s history.  I anticipate that this will also offer us the opportunity to give sexual minorities the voice that has often been minimized in our political and social systems.  With that I leave you with a very special quote:

“This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.  It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.”         

President-Elect Barack Obama

He’s “White” too

Although Obama is the first man of color who really has a chance to become President of the United States, I really have a bone to pick with the media and anyone who insists on calling him African American.  The overused statement of “Barack Obama is the first African American man to clinch the nomination…” etc etc is a complete misnomer.  Barack Obama is, and always has been, a biracial person.  If there is any more confusion, just view the picture below.

While I fully appreciate why many folks like to simply label him an African American, this perpetuates the idea of seeing biracial people as racially deficient and atypical.  I believe it is strongly due to his experiences as a biracial male that Obama is able to speak so eloquently about race relations, having been apart of both racial in-groups and out-groups.  The “one drop theory of blackness” is moot and incredibly and increasingly damaging in our society as more and more people are born multi-racial and dual-identify racially. 

Jackson loses his marbles, AGAIN!

 

He sure looks happy, doesn't he?

 

Jesse Jackson has managed to create quite a bit more controversy for himself.  This time his comments were directed at Barack Obama.  In an appearance on Fox news, Jackson made some comments about Obama stating that Obama “talks down to black people” and that Jackson wants “to cut his nuts off.”  According to Obama and Jackson they are “longtime friends.”  Certainly we all have had quarrels with our friends, but I can’t say I’ve threatened to cut off any part of a friend’s body. 

Anywho, the interesting spin on this story is that people have claimed for decades that Jackson is a divisive force in the black community and now with this recent blunder, a lot of folks are claiming he just needs to disappear in oblivion.  One person even had the audacity to state that “Jesse has not done anything for the black people but ride Dr. Martin Luther King’s coat tails.”  As much as I don’t like to say it, Jackson has not only done a lot for African Americans, but all Americans alike.  I just can’t justify the incredibly dumb, sensationalized tactics he frequently employs.  Check out this clip on YouTube from MSNBC.