Yesterday, I voted for Barack Obama as President of these United States.
Today, I am still awestruck that our America, with its racist history and the stain of that “peculiar institution” of slavery, has really elected an African American president for the first time ever.
I’m not even gonna front, I voted for Obama not just because I believe in his policies, but yes because he is Black. And today, I have never been prouder to be an African American at a time when our country takes one big step toward change, not just in leadership, but also in culture. How will our image of leadership change in this country? Will we begin to see more corporate and nonprofit CEOs and political leaders of color?
Barack Obama as President-elect helps to heal for me so many wounds of racism I have experienced being Black in America as a “minority,” as an “other,” as “less than” any other woman trying to get an education or a job or an influential leadership position. Today I can begin to forget that horrible day down in South Carolina when a Piggly Wiggly store clerk rammed into me with a shopping cart, calling me a “little nigger.” Today I can say that I’m walking straighter, speaking with more confidence, feeling prouder than ever to be a person of color. For 25 years, I have worn my race like a condition to be overcome, rather than something to be celebrated and appreciated by the mainstream culture. I knew I had to get the right credentials, and be “articulate” in every setting so I could get ahead without anybody noticing I was a Negro. Today all of that has changed. Today I know that even a skinny little black girl from Cleveland, Ohio who grew up in the projects with a teenage mother and a drug dealer for a father can make a difference in this country. My skin color does not prevent me from fighting for what I believe in, and in fact should make me fight even harder.
I really can’t do my emotions justice in this blog post, and probably won’t ever be able to in words. But there is one thing I know for sure.
Barack Obama is the right leader for America at the right time in our history. And I am ready to work with his leadership in the new administration to create the world as it should be in our communities.
