“Fear of a Black President,” is America and the World Ready?

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"Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."​

~Barack Obama~​

Being an “African American” in a country where race has played such a pivotal role in our growth and evolution is a bit bewildering. Sometimes I like to think we've made a lot of progress while others times it's clear we have a ways to go. But add to this volatile cocktail the virulence of economic uncertainty, a pointless war that has no end in sight, and the rapidly diminishing middle class you get the sense of urgency that is rippling through the tightly held stereotypical views of many. In the fury of political and social crises a politician, relatively new to the National stage has come and is capturing the imaginations of all the hues and textures of peoples in America. Describe him how you will, “articulate,” clean; intelligent or ingratiating but all these words, be they clumsy or awkward are attempting to depict the unlikely candidacy of Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

Obama is 44 years old and about two and a half years into his first term as Senator and already he's running for the highest office in the land. The media has literally anointed him as the next great political phenomena of our times. But in my way of thinking it’s a whole lot deeper than something the media can invent or hype. These are troubling and powerful times we’re living in. [All messages and messengers welcome.] I think the essential nature of man is being revealed and that means that Barack Obama has a real chance. Slim perhaps, slight truthfully, fading most likely, and fragile probably but really real. Ya know? A black man has a chance at being elected President of the United States. [That shit's just crazy yo.]

[What if a person came along that was so brilliant and talented that he/she was able to overcome the most stupendous of odds and unify a country by becoming President?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… Anyway…]

Among Obama’s many talents and capabilities he also happens to be a very talented writer. His latest literary offering, “The Audacity of Hope,” is resonating with a broad range of people that are genuinely seeking the intangible and colorless substance called hope. Obama’s book has added meaning given that America has fallen on very hard times. The Bush years have wore away the flesh of us down to the bloody bone. His Presidency fully encapsulates our cynicism and fear by charging us blindly forward, even if it means we’ll eventually go over a cliff.

The Stage and the Players:

Our Nation has been reduced to cheap theater, where the characters run around a stage screaming and pulling their hair out by the roots like silly sacred lunatics. [We still have a little hope left, don’t we though?] Cynicism and fear have defined how humanely we treat others. It's these two qualities that best describe how we see things and how we deal with things.

With a full six years of the Bush Presidency behind us and several more to go we’ve become a beaten Nation. A candidate like Barack Obama--a man that seems to be oozing with optimism--appears to be the viable alternative to "stay the course."

Maybe these times aren't just troubling but introspective, were each and every American gets a chance to look at themselves and truly question the idea of race. Maybe we don't have any other choice given the cards we're playing with. Quite possibly the course of a country rests in the hands of a black man. I know it disturbs some that this is the case but this is the case. A vote for Bush was a vote for fear and now Americans are beginning to see that fear can only get you so far. Safety and security didn’t get us any further than a war and a great deal of uncertainty. If we are to grow as a Nation we’re also going to need a little bit of hope too.

The Presidency has been an office historically dominated by white men but our ever changing social and political landscape makes such supremacy a detriment. Every Nation on this planet has its crossroads and we’ve clearly come to another one in ours, really.

Why would a world leader in Priminister John Howard of Australia criticize a candidate that has little hope of becoming President, unless he knew that Obama had a real chance? If these are those improbable times come true and the impossible is transfiguring in front of us into something real, then by God we should embrace it and the possibilities that lie ahead.

[AK steps down from his stump and exits back into the Nexus.]

Stay green.

 

Me too.

 

Bro this is rude, disrespectful, and totally unnecessary. I can understand you may have issues with her or her husband but name calling like this is childish. Challenge her ideas not her person.

Anyway, on to my point... The fact that he's black is incidental to the fact that he has presence, poise, charisma, and most importantly ideas. I don't know if anyone's keeping score here but government is bogged down in partisan struggles when what are needed are thinkers and idealists. Barack Obama has such a strong appeal because he has qualities even his white competitor’s lack.

We can bring America back from this present and also address our racial differeces. I can't speak for any of you but IMHO I believe we can do it and its time.

 

The strange thing is his mother is white, but we live in a country where even if you are half or less than half black you're still considered black, there's no gray area. Kinda sucks we have such narrow and restrictive definitions of race. It's one of those hang-ups that's holding us back ya dig?