All Jokes Aside...

Okay look, I've seen and heard a lot of chatter about Barack and why it is or is not important that he's black. In fact, I've had these types of discussions all throughout his campaign. Here's my 3 cents on the topic. It matters. A LOT! Let me give you my perspective. Although there's some debate, it appears that American slavery started around the mid-1500's. The 13th amendment was ratified in 1865. In 1896, Jim Crow kicks in with Plessy v. Ferguson. 1954 conjures the image of a little black girl requiring a police escort just to go to school after Brown v. Board of Ed. One year later, Emmit Till is murdered for whistling at a white woman. Keep in mind, this is FIFTY THREE years ago. People are still alive that can tell you how they felt when they found out about it. But I digress, in 1963 MLK, Jr gave the "I have a Dream" speech. In 1972, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment ends. For those who don't already know, researchers took 399 black men and injected them with syphilis. The researchers basically let the disease run its course just to see how long it would take for the test subjects to croak. Again, 1972 people. I really could go on and on about the various police brutality cases, crappy schools, general neglect; all of which disproportionately affect black folk.

Don't get it twisted, we do much of the damage to ourselves and I make excuses for no one. I'm relatively conservative on most issues and I think knuckleheads should many times, just stop being knuckleheads. That being said, we were stolen from our homeland, brutally transported across the ocean killing millions in the process, technically enslaved for 400 years, and mentally enslaved for 150 more. Even if I wanted to, it would be impossible for me to trace my ancestry. I don't know which tribe I came from, what language(s) we spoke, what our traditions were, who my ancestors are, or why it even matters. I don't identify with Africans and they don't identify with me. My history starts here, in America. In slavery. My great grandparents help build the country they couldn't take a financial stake in. There are families in America that have generations of money available to them because my ancestors worked and they profited. I'm not asking for any sympathy, the point of this blog is simply to say...It Matters and here's why. We can talk about injustice all day. The Manifest Destiny proposition and The Trail of Tears are just a couple of examples.

All I'm sayin is that a black man is the leader of the free world. That's awesome to me. Hell yeah I believe in him as a man and as a leader. But when I see a black man sitting in the oval office with the weight of the country on his shoulders, I just kinda stop and stare. Its almost like its not real. It matters because I can stop lyin to my baby girls when I tell them that they can become anything they want. It matters because a young black boy who has no parents, no structure, and no role models just might look at Barack and say, "I wanna be like him" rather than the local hustla. It matters because we can have this conversation and people listen now. It matters...well..because I don't have to explain why it matters anymore.