What Obama Means To America

  
    
I, like millions of African-Americans was quite surprised and happy that Senator Barack Obama became President Barack Obama. I was always worried that there would be some last minute snafu, some last minute "rule change", some silly law from 1921 that they would find that would make electing someone named Barack illegal. But he won both the primary and the general elections becoming our 44th President.

  
Now, I for one was not surprised at the vehemence of the extreme right, (and some of the moderate right that became extreme) after some of them realized that there was a black man in charge of the free world. There is going to be some angst that comes along with such a change from the norm. Nor was I one of these people that believed Obama would magically usher in a new consciousness about race, and that we would all stop hating one another. While, I do agree that his election means that the tide is turning, especially among the Millennials and the rest of the youth, all you really have to do is read anything in the "comments" section of  a Yahoo news article about the  President, or play any Xbox/PlayStation games with a headset to know we are not in a "post-racial" society...(whatever that is).

     That bit of sobering, but unsurprising news aside there is an item some have overlooked, one part of the story that fascinates me, and makes me feel good to be an American. The story of Barack Obama's ascension to the Presidency of the United States of America may be one of the only cases where a member of the minority culture, (especially a culture that has been victimized by state sponsored discrimination) had been elected to the highest office in the land. That is something to be proud of, from a nation building point of view. Now, there have been cases where members of the minority in a country took over, and subjugated the people through torture and force of arms, (South Africa and Iraq) there have been cases where the minority in a country ran the country through imperialism, (India under British rule)

     But I cannot think of many cases where the minority in any country has been allowed, through democratic means to rise to the most powerful position in that country, and historically never has a country done that when they were a World Power. You think a Palestinian will ever be Prime Minister of Israel, or a Irishman presiding over British Parliament (let alone have a West Indian or Pakistani Prime Minister) , or a Muslim President of India. This phenomenon is not common, it should be acknowledged and celebrated.

     And while we as Americans have a long way to go when it comes to matters of diversity, let alone race. While it is true that there are people out there claiming Obama is a secret: Muslim, Communist, Nazi Kenyen. And it is very true that there is a lot of work to be done to get us anywhere close to a society that Dr. King would be proud of. It behooves us, that while we are on this journey that we don't overlook the milestones. And I believe it was a major milestone, that in a country that embraced, Jim Crow, slavery & segregation, in 2008, 66 million Americans voted for a minority to be leader of the free world, defender of the Constitution, and President of these United States of America. That included three former confederate states, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. And regardless of the backlash we are seeing now, the fact that we as a nation were able to even make it to the point where such a backlash was possible gives me HOPE for the future of my county..... and to quote a man I admire.

"In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."

-President Barack Obama

The New Niggers.

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

-Pastor Martin Niemöller

     Well, I'm going to speak up. Muslims are the new niggers. They have become the "feared" the "scary", the "other". You know you have made it into the ranks of the oppressed when they start burning religious items and placing them on your doorstep as happened in East Lansing, Michigan. In a despicable case of the cowardly imitating the idiotic. Someone decided to commit a copycat hate crime. They burned a Quran, and laid pieces of the desecrated holy book at the doors of a local Islamic Center. 

     The perpetrator turned himself in, after a $10,000 reward was offered for information regardign the hate crime.  Today Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III announced that he will not issue charges in connection with the burning of a Quran outside the Islamic Center, and I quote the good prosecutor. 

"After reviewing the police report, I have decided there is no criminal offense that I can charge under Michigan law," Dunnings said in the statement.

     I disagree; it is clear to me that Michigan's hate laws are meant to prosecute intimidation, and harassment, while leaving for the 1st amendment to operate. This was not a 1st amendment issue, the perpetrator left the burnt Quran on the property of the Islamic center, this is a clear message of intimidation. It should be vigorously prosecuted. Dunning told the Detroit Free Press

"We don't have a hate crime. There was no threat of physical intimidation because he (the perpetrator)was the only one there (at the mosque) at the time,"

     So, if a group Klansman burn a cross on my front yard, and I'm not home, according to Stuart Dunning there was no intimidation going on. If a group of neo-Nazis burn a swastika and put it in front of a Jewish temple, no problem? Not prosecuting these hate crimes is going to have two effects. Number one, it will encourage copycats, because it says: we won’t prosecute you; we won’t even slap you on the wrist.  Number two, it tells the Muslim community “protect yourselves”, because we won’t do it for you. Is that the type of America we live in now?

     Now for the million dollar question. Where is the show of solidarity from the black community? If anyone should be attuned to the implications of burning holy objects and placing them on property it should be African-Americans. Where is the outcry from the local NAACP, the Black Student Union, and the black church? Do we not have a stake in this outcome? Do we not see the road ahead, and where this can and will lead? It was not so long ago when our grandparents, aunt and uncles faced this type of discrimination. Have we fallen so far into the American dream, that we no longer remember the nightmares? Or are we so ecstatic, that they have found new niggers, that we have become afraid to speak up, happy that the spotlight no longer shines exclusively on us. Well, I stand in solidarity, because it is the right thing to do, this is the right time to do it, and when someone does decide to come for me….I hope someone, anyone has the fortitude to speak up.