As America launches itself boldly into the Obama Chapter of our nation's history, I watch as the different factions of our society fight to claim President Barack Hussein Obama. Perhaps in the launching of this and other blog sites that draw attention to his mixed heritage, to the melting pot that is America, it is my hope to first follow his history making time in the White House, while striving to report important news, and views involving our President in a new way that forces people to think, causes them to pause for a moment and explore their own racial sensitivities and prejudices. There are many sides to every issue, and the way forward demands that we hear every one of them before deciding which direction is best as we move forward in these turbulent times.
The White House is perhaps the most famous political brand in the history of the world, it's image evoking the home of our American Democracy, a sign of hope for the rest of the world that there can be life, liberty and justice for all. In some ways, the election of President Obama has burnished that brand, while conversely drawing attention to the hidden bigotry that runs deep in our America Heritage. Our nation's capital has been headed by White Men who lived in the White House for over two hundred years, and with our collective voices, that long reign came to an end with last nights tally of our votes that placed Barack OBama at the helm. He is not black, he is not white, but a mixture of both, a blending of all that is Black and White and what that entails here in the United States of America.
As much as the African American Community wants to claim him as one of their own, Barack Obama is not an African American, no more than he is a White American. In holding him up as one or the other, we deny ourselves the unifying bond his being of mixed race brings to us as a nation. Obama is Mulatto, the offspring of a black/white union of two souls who at one time were in love...look back at the events swirling around at the time of his conception and youth, look at the events that have unfurled since 1960 when John F. Kennedy took office, and Barack Obama is the perfect embodiment of the hopes and dreams that were, that are the Equal Rights Movement. Obama is a love child created at the beginning of a period of great racial turmoil in our nation by two brave souls who dared to step across forbidden lines, cross taboo bridges in experiencing the love they knew was real, while being told it was wrong.
Their love has brought forth a man who brings a message of hope, a message of unification, a man who challenges us to think beyond ourselves at a crucial time in America's history as a nation. How we individually and collectively respond to his message, to his call to action will dictate the road our Great Nation shall travel down as we write our history. Can we join as one and face down the obstacles that threaten America, or will we splinter off into warring factions as a once great nation joins the ranks of empires come and gone?
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