As I watched Larry King yesterday night, he kept asking this same question to all his guests: What does the inauguration mean to you? I have been trying to answer that question this morning. As a black person living in the United States at this time, it is imperative to find an answer to this question.
Yet I seem numb and find it a daunting task to come up with something profound. I am trying not to wrap my answers in clichés gleaned from TV news casters and talk show hosts. I am trying to reach into my soul to feel the answer.
Yet after a full night sleep on this, my take is another hackneyed premise: Once more the black man has proven that given the chance, he/she can perform as good as any one if not better. But it may be that the mammoth nature of this occurrence is so overwhelming that only tested phrases can encapsulate one’s thoughts. Nonetheless, slithering from this rather blanket statement- this inauguration certainly holds potential for my two boys born in the United States. President Barack Obama then becomes a personification of reachable ideals and a metaphor for potential. There may no longer be a need to change African or non-western names to make them suitable for white audiences, for if a Barack Hussein Obama can be made president in the USA especially when another Hussein was hung in a not so distant past with the USA as star witness, then all is possible.
Also, that Barack Obama is the product of a single parent home is no longer news but it is a fact that sits in a privileged corner of my single parenting soul. It is a fact that forces me to connect to Anne Soetoro, Obama’s mom, Debbie Phelps, and Donda West. All moms who have single handedly raised super inspiring men. So I look at the inauguration day, and I see the finishing line of an Olympic game of hurdles and Barack Obama as an outstanding gold medalist. The missing coach is of course, Mama Anne Soetoro.
So I guess there’s no chance for me to say anything more profound than this: The inauguration of the first black president of the United States of America captures hope, inspires hope, displays hope, engenders hope, facilitates hope, and creates hope. I don’t know about you but my two sons and I are ready to fly on the wings of hope to Obamaland where hope gives birth to reality in the superlative.
Joyce,
Thank you so much for including me in this conversation! I can not tell you the level of excitement even our youngest children are experiencing today! Most importantly, they understand the significance of the moment. Like you, I have this deep sense of hope for our country that I have not felt in many years. Enjoy the moment!
Deb
Posted by: Debra Adamczyk | January 20, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Joyce,
Thanks for your insights. I just came back from a symposium with my students and colleagues about the hopes, the day after, for the Obama Presidency.
A student wanted to know if Obama's Presidency will have a positive impact on poor blacks; another wanted to know how US foreign policy will change in the Obama administration.
One of my professors in the dept. of political science supervised Obama's mother when she worked in Indonesia. He reminded the student that Prez Obama did not come from the typical poor family, but as a community organizer brings knowledge about the poor and an understanding that more opportunities should be available to all to seize. Many of those opportunities for education exist already, but many people in the US think of themselves as the eternal victims of an unjust society and fail to seize such opportunities. They will be disappointed if they expect a welfare administration from Obama.
Obama is a politician. Successful politicians are great negotiators and compromise, when necessary to achieve their goals. Often, they seek to win elections and do what it takes to achieve those results that keep them in power.
Obama takes office at a time of negative perceptions of the US in the world. He will enjoy a certain honeymoon in that, like most Democratic administrations, his own might be less arrogant to the views of other states in the world. The choice of Dr. Susan Rice as UN ambassador is proof that a more positve approach to the UN is likely should Democrats hold to hold the majority in the senate after the 2012 mid-term elections. (And here I must plug my bk: Read "The United States and the United Nations: Congressional Funding and U.N. Reform,"published in 2007 by LFB Scholarly of New York. In it, I x-ray the arrogance of conservatives towards the UN and the consequences of that on how the world perceives the US.
Beyond the above, a black man in the White House must baffle every observer of these United States of America, a place where a few decades ago, a black man was treated as less than human. If this does not inspire everyone to act on the dreams they have, nothing will.
Great website, by the way. Keep up the good work.
-benn
Posted by: Benn L. Bongang | January 21, 2009 at 03:44 PM
Joyce,
Thanks for your insights. I just came back from a symposium with my students and colleagues about the hopes, the day after, for the Obama Presidency.
A student wanted to know if Obama's Presidency will have a positive impact on poor blacks; another wanted to know how US foreign policy will change in the Obama administration.
One of my professors in the dept. of political science supervised Obama's mother when she worked in Indonesia. He reminded the student that Prez Obama did not come from the typical poor family, but as a community organizer brings knowledge about the poor and an understanding that more opportunities should be available to all to seize. Many of those opportunities for education exist already, but many people in the US think of themselves as the eternal victims of an unjust society and fail to seize such opportunities. They will be disappointed if they expect a welfare administration from Obama.
Obama is a politician. Successful politicians are great negotiators and compromise, when necessary to achieve their goals. Often, they seek to win elections and do what it takes to achieve those results that keep them in power.
Obama takes office at a time of negative perceptions of the US in the world. He will enjoy a certain honeymoon in that, like most Democratic administrations, his own might be less arrogant to the views of other states in the world. The choice of Dr. Susan Rice as UN ambassador is proof that a more positve approach to the UN is likely should Democrats hold to hold the majority in the senate after the 2012 mid-term elections. (And here I must plug my bk: Read "The United States and the United Nations: Congressional Funding and U.N. Reform,"published in 2007 by LFB Scholarly of New York. In it, I x-ray the arrogance of conservatives towards the UN and the consequences of that on how the world perceives the US.
Beyond the above, a black man in the White House must baffle every observer of these United States of America, a place where a few decades ago, a black man was treated as less than human. If this does not inspire everyone to act on the dreams they have, nothing will.
Great website, by the way. Keep up the good work.
-benn
Posted by: Benn L. Bongang | January 21, 2009 at 03:44 PM