The Nation and indeed the world at large is dancing to the sweet music of a new and powerful reality – a Black man is President elect of the United States of America. Many view this development as a sign of underlying changes in race perceptions and relations that have been largely embraced by a post civil rights generation of America. There is no denying that the issue of race, although being a factor in the election, is no longer the huge barrier it was in times past in America. The neutralizing force was the youth vote.
According to some estimations, 24 million people between the ages of 18-29 voted in this election. 66% of people in this age range voted for Barack Obama in contrast to 32% for McCain. In North Carolina, Obama won the youth vote by nearly 50 points, with 73 points over John McCain’s 27. He lost every other age group in that state. So, certainly White America views Obama differently and a lot of the media coverage highlights this point. But more important to me, is the change in perceptions that Obama can potentially inspire within the Black community on so many levels.
Here is an individual, a Father, Husband, former community activist, Harvard educated, lawyer, Senator, intellectual, cool and soon to be President – and he is a Black man. In the person of Obama, Black youth are presented with a compelling alternative to the played out, narrow, traditional picture of a successful Black person as an entertainer or sports figure. To be sure, Black men and women of Barack and Michelle Obama’s caliber do exist in the Black community. They are lawyers, Doctors, Police and Firemen, Accountants, Business owners, entrepreneurs, Educators and Social Workers but they do not get captured by the lenses of the media nor get the chance to sit on Oprah’s couch to become “food for thought” in the minds of Black youth. So, limited types of images are fed to Black kids, mainly confined to the entertainment and sports industry in some way or fashion. No wonder it seems 8 out of 10 Black youth want to be a rapper, label owner, R&B singer, or Basketball player.
For these kids, I believe that the life of Obama and the successes achieved in that life will be a more powerful influence on the minds of Black youth than hundreds of speeches by Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Rev. Sharpton or any State of the Black Union conferences. These men (and women too) all spoke and speak from a position of marginalization, a position of an “outsider” painting a picture of a society where we become “insiders”.
These men and women were and are great individuals and all of us enjoy the benefits of their labor. But, when they appear, their presence automatically and necessarily produce in us a mental disposition of rejection, of being less than, of being in a constant struggle with discrimination and as unintentional as it may be that too can be damaging to the minds of our young ones and limit their ability to dream and achieve. That is why Obama, in a sense, is more valuable. However, contrary to the popular current mantra that Obama’s win “ means any Black child can become President too”, Obama’s win doesn’t mean that anymore than a White President means any White kid can become President as well.
Obama’s value, is that his winning the Presidency is not a denial of the existence of discrimination, but evidence that in spite of that, we each exercise a greater degree of control in deciding the direction of and achievements in our lives, than we think. This is a realization that many Black professionals have come to long ago. But, Obama, unlike them, will be on TV almost on a daily basis and Black youth will turn on the TV and see a Black man making decisions, giving instructions, taking questions and looking professional.
It is my hope and belief, that gradually our kids will replace images of cristal drinking Black entertainers with images of educated, professional Black individuals.
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