I said the Pledge of Allegiance this year for the first time since I was eight or nine. After Obama's election, I truly felt like an American for the first time. I know, that is an odd concept for some. I am willing to go out on a limb here and guess that everyone who has a hard time grasping that concept is probably not Black. You are probably not Native American, Latino, or Asian either. If you are Black, until today, pledging your loyalty to a country that still excluded you from many of the privileges that you helped to create and defend felt uncomfortable, ridiculous, weak. I would have felt embarrassed to say The Pledge before. Like a woman declaring her love to the husband who abuses her. Knowing that she loves him but knowing she should not. Knowing that others would look at her like a fool for doing so. I would have felt like an Uncle Tom. There has never been an American Flag in or on my house, car, clothes, or in my hand. Not since a July 4th parade I was in, in kindergarten.
I stopped saying The Pledge of Allegiance in elementary school. When all the other kids stood, I remained in my seat. I was pulled out of class and sent to the principle's office. My mother was called. She took off time from work to come down to the school to meet with the principle of Lingelbach Elementary School, Mr. Smallwood. The minute Mr. Smallwood saw my mother he knew he had made a mistake. I could see it in his eyes and I smiled and sat back in my chair to enjoy the show. My mother walked into his office, all 5'11" of her, six inches taller than Mr. Smallwood. She had a shoulder to shoulder afro and she was wearing a dashiki and platform shoes that made her well over 6'2" tall. She ranted and raved and cussed and hollered for a full five-minutes while Mr. Smallwood apologized again and again and promised her that I would not be made to say the Pledge ever again.
All through high school and college I sat while the other kids stood. I stayed mum while they repeated those words of fidelity to this country that I could not fully embrace as my own, feeling that it had not fully embraced me. As an adult, during the Clinton years, I was more subtle. I stood but would not recite and did not put my hand over my heart. It was bad enough that the government took my taxes without truly representing me, I was not going to compound the insult by bowing down before my oppressor. This feeling became more vehement during Reagan's term in office when the young Black male became Public Enemy number 1 and I just happened to be of that sex and hue and even more so during the reign of George W. Bush when we were simply ignored by a president who appeared content to pretend that Black people simply did not exist.
Then came Barrack Obama. Martin Luther King said that we would reach the mountain top and seeing Barrack's inauguration felt like that mountain top. For a man born of an African father and a white mother to have reached the highest office in the land was the very epitome of that dream. For the first time, it felt like my America. I felt represented in a way that no Black person in America has ever felt before.
I was reading a a poem today by Linda Addison titled My Country The Day Before, January 19, 2009, and I was almost moved to tears by these words:
Stars and stripes forever
red, white and blue
bringing us all home
finally, willing to be
responsible, each person finally
willing to be American
I had always been unwilling to be American because America had always felt unwilling to have me as one of its citizens. I had always felt as if America wished it could be rid of me, this dirty little secret. Black people, like Native Americans, are a reminder of America's less than virtuous past. But Black Americans have not been murdered to the point of near extinction. We were not interbred with Caucasians to the point that we can no longer be identified. And those of us who remained were not herded onto reservations and forgotten. Our continued presence in nearly every city in America was a constant reminder, an embarrassment, a blight, a stain, and we felt it. We felt it every day. I felt it every day. I felt your pity. I felt your anger. I felt your disgust and I felt your apathy and so I returned it. Even when I tried my best to let it go, it remained, boiling there below the surface. Now, I can let it go.
The idea that we are all expecting Obama to wave some magic wand and cure all the ills of the world is ridiculous. We expect him to make mistakes. We expect him to have the usual failures and controversies that every president before him has had along with quite a few victories. But the victory we were all most interested in was the one he made in November when he became the first Black man elected to the office of the president. If he does nothing more, that was enough.
I know, that seems odd for those of you who have grown up looking at faces that looked like you and your family whenever you watched a presidential election or inauguration or whenever the president of a major US company or corporation spoke on TV. It may even seem silly and naive. "Silly Negroes. He's only a man." We must seem deluded, hysterical, misguided. Someday, I hope to be so comfortable with the fact that a Black person can get elected to any office in this country, hold any position in business or politics, that I will look back on this day and wonder what all the fuss was about. I hope to be able to look at this type of event as no big deal. I hope to be able to wait and see what the Black guy does when he takes office before getting all excited. To see it all as inconsequential in the face of all the other challenges America has to face. I hope to feel that someday. But not today. Today, for the first time in memory, I am proud to be an American.
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19 comments:
I just felt proud to have an intelligent, eloquent leader again. Bush has been an embarrassment to me, to our country. At last, we have a true leader in the highest office, someone who can hold his own with the leaders of other countries.
I agree, with Wrath's post and Karen's response. Barack is just awesome because he's Barack-- but I'm really happy for African Americans. They deserve to be on cloud nine. --BKE
Sorry, Wrath. I'm an idiot. After reading your well thought out essay on patriotism, I find myself laughing at the absurd irony of your principal being named "Smallwood." You know, we'd expect that sort of ironic name in fantasy, as with Tolkien's "Wormtongue" or J.K. Rowlings "Wormtail." In the face of history, he's "small" indeed.
Great post.
Unfortunately, we still have not had a Black president. Obama is as much white as he is black. In the truest sense he IS an African-American, since his father was from Kenya and his mother from Kansas, but in my mind (at least) he is not a Black American because he has no ancestor that was brought to these shores as a slave and sold. Obama is the product of white, liberal academia and needed a Reverend like Wright as a bridge to the true Black electorate of Southside Chicago.
If Obama had gathered a panel of economists and drafted a true stimulus plan (with targeted spending and targeted tax cuts), then presented it to Congress and forced them to push it through without alteration, I would have a lot more respect for him. Instead, he allowed Congress to draft an immense spending bill and it is Congress who is responsible for the economic state in which we languish. That is the difference between a leader and a politician who can speak well. When Reagan went over the heads of Congress to speak to the people, it was his own plan he explained, not Congress'.
If a J.C. Watts, Condoleeza Rice, Michael Steele, or even a Colin Powell is elected, then we will have a true Black president.
In the meantime, I'm glad you are finally proud to be an American. I guess thousands of Union soldiers giving their lives in a Civil War was not enough? I guess the three martyred Freedom Riders didn't count? I guess all those apathetic whiteys that marched side-by-side with Black Americans in Washington to hear the Reverend Martin Luther King give his "I have a dream" speech didn't matter? I'm afraid the amount of melanin in a person's skin seems to matter much more to you than it does to me.
Obama is doing exactly what I helped elect him to do. He is trying to unify this country rather than acting as a dictator like Bush has done for the past eight years and further dividing it. Democrats are in the majority in both the house and the senate and he is still enormously popular so he could just write his own bill and force it through but he is appealing to those whose collective intelligence and experience should be greater than his alone to try to pass the best bill possible. I wasn’t one of the idiots who deified Reagan. I think the man was an idiot and a racist asshole who, along with Bush Sr., is responsible for one of the worst times for Black Americans since the start of The Civil Rights movement. He could have benefitted from actually listening to what the American people and their elected representatives had to say a little more. But that’s another story.
Obama is trying, despite enormous opposition, to get rid of one of the biggest problems in our country which is the bipartisanship that gridlocks all levels of government and prevents anything substantive from getting done. I am really not interested in a president who thinks he knows everything and doesn't consult with the congressmen and senators that we also elected to represent our individual states.
And no, thousands of Union Soldiers giving their lives for a country that then took back their promise of 40 acres and a mule and followed that with Jim Crow laws, and the rescinding of their newly acquired voting rights was not enough. It is, in fact, a very large part of the reason most of us do not feel a part of this country. The Freedom Riders and those White Americans who joined in the Civil Rights movement were marching against the very America I speak of. They recognized that Black Americans were not allowed the rights of American citizens in this country. THAT’S WHY THEY WERE MARCHING. It wasn't just a Sunday stroll. It is you who dishonor their memory and trivialize their sacrifice, sir.
And as for questioning his Blackness, that's just silly. Black is just a skin color. It has less to do in this country with who your parents are then how you are treated in this country as Obama learned early on. In this country people are divided by the amount of melanin in their skin. Stupid? Yes. But also reality. I don't call myself an African- Cherokee-Seminole-Caucasian (and who the hell knows what else)American because I don't experience any of that and never have. I do experience being Black and in Hawaii, Chicago, Harvard, and even in the senate and definitely during his presidential race, that's exactly what Obama experienced. Therefore, Black American is the appropriate label. We can only hope that someday labels will no longer exist but today ain't that day.
NewYorkjoe replies: I think that history will show that President Obama has already passed the highwater mark of his popularity. Still, I wish him success, because his failure will not be his alone, or even the Democrats' alone, it will be a failure for every American citizen (doI really have to say Black or white?).
As for "appealing to those whose collective intelligence and experience should be greater than his alone," you cannot realistically be referring to Congress? When Barney Frank assured everyone that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were fine and solvent? When Chris Dodd and other Democrats blocked attempts to regulate the financial sector by McCain and Bush 43? Congress is the problem, not the designer of the solution! It was Congress, Pelosi, and Clinton that forced banks to lend to homebuyers who could not qualify after all. They are the LAST people Obama should seek advice from or allow to meddle in a stimulus bill.
I don't see any "tremendous opposition" to Obama and if anyone is being "deified," it is him, not Reagan. Also, I thinnk you are confusing your terms; "bipartisanship" is not what is blocking progress in the government. I guess you must mean partisanship. You see, "bipartisanship" is what Democrats call it when they have convinced some so-called moderate Republicans to break with their basic principles and vote with Democrats for larger, more expensive, and more intrusive government.
If you think things were so bad under Reagan and Bush 43, I guess you forgot what it was like under Carter, with a prime rate of 22%, sky-high inflation, double-digit unemployment, and the loss of American prestige in the world while our diplomats were held in Iran for 444 days.
And, how dare you say I "dishonor their memory and trivialize their sacrifice" of the Freedom Riders and the whites who marched to the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. King. My father was a hotel detective who protected Dr. King when he visited Daytona Beach, Florida and stayed at his hotel. My parents took me to D.C. for the march when I was only 12.
Rather, I think you dishonor and trivialize the sacrifices, the stuggle and endurance of those Black Americans who lived through the Jim Crow laws, substandard housing and schools, separate and not equal facilities, who fought for voting rights, whose ancestors arrived in chains by extending membership in the Black American community to a child of privilege who never faced discrimintation in his entire life. He faced no discrimination during his presidential run for his skin color! Why, it was an offense even to mention his middle name. To be truly Black in America is much more than a skin color, it involves a family history of sacrifice, deprivation, struggle, loss, and triumphing over odds. That I should have to remind you of this is beyond belief, SIR.
In conclusion, NewYorkjoe said:
I'm glad that you are "finally proud to be an American." I'm only puzzled that it only took a candidate to be elected president with sufficient melanin in his skin. But, you appear to have that in common with Michelle Obama, since she made a similar comment when her husband was declared the Democratic presidential candidate.
As for myself, I've always been proud to be an American, though admittedly less proud on certain occasions than others. For example, I've been proud when I see Black students filing past a racist governor to desegregate a school and ashamed at the hateful faces of some whites in the crowd, but proud of the will and perseverence of the Black students.
I've also been ashamed of the treatment of Japanese-Americans under a Democratic administration during WWII, but proud that the sons of those internees still fought for their country and became the most decorated unit in the American army, although their families languished in desert camps after losing everything they had built and owned.
I guess I am proud of American advances, whether in social justice or technolgy, but I do not allow that pride to be outweighed by the mistakes America has made. I suppose that I could hate Great Britain the way you seem to hate America (until Jan. 20th) if I dwelt on the injustice of England deliberately starving the Irish so that my ancestors had to emigrate to America, leaving behind whole families turned out to die by the road with grass stains on their mouths, because there was nothing else to eat, but I do not.
I still look forward to the day when we elect a president who is a true Black American, a descendent of former slaves. I have consulted with some of my Black friends and coworkers and they agree that is a step not yet achieved. And, believe me, they don't agree with me just because I'm white and you don't have to either. Best of luck with your continued writing.
"To be truly Black in America is much more than a skin color, it involves a family history of sacrifice, deprivation, struggle, loss, and triumphing over odds. That I should have to remind you of this is beyond belief, SIR."
This, in the end, is the crux of our disagreement. Truly there are emotions, very strong emotions, that go along with the historical legacy of Blacks in America. That being said, and part of the reason for the hard feelings that exist between many Black Americans and many Africans who are recent immigrants to America and come here expecting to be treated differently than the ancestors of slaves, is that the rest of America only sees our skin color and we are treated accordingly. It doesn't matter if you are from the Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe, or Watts, all America sees is your Black skin and you are treated accordingly. Just because you're from Cuba and not The Bronx doesn't mean you're going to have any eaier time than me catching a cab in LA or getting a job or a bank loan. That's why many Black Americans have felt betrayed by recent Black immigrants who have tried to distance themselves from our struggles. Generally we sit back and wait for the inevitable rude awakening when they realize that no matter where they are from they will be treated the same as the rest of us because of that bit of melanin in their skin.
That bit of melanin once meant that you couldn't vote, own property, marry outside your race, or have any hope of reaching public office, least of all president, no matter where your parents were from. So no, it doesn't matter where Obama is from. It doesn't matter that he's Harvard educated (as if an education somehow makes him less Black) The very fact that a man of his pigmentation could be elected president marks a major change in America. The rest of the world certainly sees that. Strange that you don't.
I remember when Vanessa Williams became the first Black Miss America and many people tried to downplay that accomplishment by remarking on her light skin and European features and saying that America will still not be a placxe where Black is truly considered beautiful until you have a Miss America with a wide nose, thick lips, and dark brown skin. I get that but we would have never even had a Miss America as dark as Vanessa Williams just a decade before. It would have been unthinkable. As unthinkable as a president as dark as Obama is just five years ago. To not recognize that is ridiculous. I believe we will have a president one day who can trace his roots back to the slave ships and I believe that will come about in my lifetime largely because of what happened this past November. Though I can't entirely rule out the possibility of a Jack Johnson affect if he screws up.
Oh, and to clear up one misunderstanding before it goes further. I never said I hated America. In fact, if you reread my post you'll see that I used the comparison of a battered wife to illustrate that I love America though I often feel like a fool for doing so and have felt embarrassed for it, defending a country that has been so reluctant to accept me. What I have said is that I have never felt 100% included in this country. I have never felt like a complete citien because of the fact that a Caucasian from another country can come here and immediately get more rights and opportunities than a Black man whose ancestors helped build this country, who fought in the Civil War, World War II, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Gulf War, only to come home and be treated like second-class citizens. How it now feels as if America has finally begun to embrace its darker brothers. That's not hatred, as has been said many time throughout Obamas campaign (though not directly by him) true patriotism is loving America enough to criticize it and to try to change it and make it better. This America right or wrong, you're either for it or agaiunst it nonsense is just ridiculous and destructive. If everytime someone criticizes this country someone shouts him down and tells him that he hates America, if every time someone says that they have felt alienated by this country everyone rose up and told him that he has no right to feel that way because a very small percentage of the country stood by his people as they marched for their freedom, if every time someone pointed out that one race or class or sex or sexual orientation enjoyed rights that everyone ought to enjoy but not everyone in this country does, they were called unpatriotic racists then there's no way this country would ever change. No way we would ever have our first Black President.
I think saying you're not a Black American unless your ancestors were slaves is as silly as saying you're not a White American unless your ancestors arrived on the Mayflower.
Plus, there are plenty of White Americans who have black slave ancestors in their genealogy.
Obama is an American and has dark enough skin to be considered black by anyone looking at him. For any rationally thinking person, that's all the evidence needed to know he's a Black American, imo.
I voted for him for his policies first, but I am extremely proud not just for the black people of this country, but that the white people, and all the other races, could come together and vote majority for him. The passion during the election was overwhelming, and my heart swelled when Obama won.
I'm thrilled for you, Wrath, and everyone else who can feel the same pride. I only wish that something as trivial as skin color hadn't been such an obstacle for so long.
And I agree that it's really nuts how people downplay it. Prior to the election, I'd heard from some locals how "we can't have no n***er in the White House" or "If he wins, it'll be the United States of Africa." After he won, I hear, "Well, half of him is white so it's not so bad."
Crap like that makes my blood boil. But the election offers hope that we'll have less and less of that as time passes.
NewYorkjoe said: I checked just to be sure, but I never said that you "hate America." Since I don't put words in your mouth, kindly refrain from putting them in mine.
You speak at length about discrimination, how a white person from another country can come to America and enjoy rights denied to Black Americans. I think you must be living in some Jim Crow past, because that has been illegal for some time and is not condoned by the majority of Americans.
I recall Jesse Jackson once saying how he was a bit ashamed once walking alone late at night, hearing footsteps behind and worriedly looking back, but feeling relieved when he saw a white face. What does that say about us and how we all think?
I do not judge every Black American by some kids that mugged me or threw rocks at me when I was young, why do you insist on viewing whites according to some racist minority? I suggest that you recall that when Lyndon B. Johnson pushed through the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other anti-discrimination legislation, he had to get Republicans to support it because the Democrats would not; in fact, they fillibustered the Civil Rights Act.
Since you dwell so much in the racist past, recall that Lincoln invited prominent Freedmen to the White House for a conference toward the last days of the Civil War. He offered them a choice. After the Confederacy was defeated, either America would emigrate Blacks back to Africa, or obtain an island in the Caribbean or an area in Central America for them. The Freedmen turned him down, they said that they had helped build America, their relatives were buried in America, and their children born in America. They were Americans first.
America has problems, it has always had problems, but we work toward solving them, we do not ignore them and pretend that they don't exist. Race discrimination is one problem, but would you say we have made no progress? Is that glass half empty or half full? Would you suggest that only whites are racist, because if that's what you believe, you are quite mistaken.
In closing, it would appear from your last post that we agree that Obama's election is a step toward electing a true Black American, one descended from freed slaves. I also hope it will be someone with a bit more experience and less hyperbole, someone who does not use fear to influence the passage of unread legislation, who does not claim a crisis exists and then leaves for a long holiday back home, and who really means it when he says there will be no lobbyists in his administration. I'm still waiting for my "change," but I believe it will be only the handful of change I get back when I file my taxes.
"I suppose that I could hate Great Britain the way you seem to hate America (until Jan. 20th)..."
Did I misinterpret that somehow?
"You speak at length about discrimination, how a white person from another country can come to America and enjoy rights denied to Black Americans. I think you must be living in some Jim Crow past, because that has been illegal for some time and is not condoned by the majority of Americans."
Dude, do you even live in this country? If you are somehow blissfully unaware of the racial disparities and discrimination that exist in this country from employment to housing to criminal justice to education then I really don't have the time to enlighten you. We live in the information age and so there's no longer any excuse for ignorance no matter where you live or how detached and sheltered your life may be. You can look up the stats on education, housing, healthcare, conviction and incarceration rates, promotion and pay descrimination,anywhere on the internet.
"Race discrimination is one problem, but would you say we have made no progress? Is that glass half empty or half full? Would you suggest that only whites are racist, because if that's what you believe, you are quite mistaken."
I don't know where that came from but there's nothing in my post to support any of that so since I was obviously not the one who put that particular chip on your shoulder I decline to try to knock it off. I'm done though I really hope you will look into things a bit deeper.
"I suppose that I could hate Great Britain the way you seem to hate America (until Jan. 20th)..."
Did I misinterpret that somehow?
"You speak at length about discrimination, how a white person from another country can come to America and enjoy rights denied to Black Americans. I think you must be living in some Jim Crow past, because that has been illegal for some time and is not condoned by the majority of Americans."
Dude, do you even live in this country? If you are somehow blissfully unaware of the racial disparities and discrimination that exist in this country from employment to housing to criminal justice to education then I really don't have the time to enlighten you. We live in the information age and so there's no longer any excuse for ignorance no matter where you live or how detached and sheltered your life may be. You can look up the stats on education, housing, healthcare, conviction and incarceration rates, promotion and pay descrimination,anywhere on the internet.
"Race discrimination is one problem, but would you say we have made no progress? Is that glass half empty or half full? Would you suggest that only whites are racist, because if that's what you believe, you are quite mistaken."
I don't know where that came from but there's nothing in my post to support any of that so since I was obviously not the one who put that particular chip on your shoulder I decline to try to knock it off. I'm done though I really hope you will look into things a bit deeper.
NewYorkjoe said: I think "seem" is the operative word, as in "seem to hate America."
Also, it appears pretty obvious (at least to me) who really has that chip on their shoulder. A lot of people have endured discrimination, have overcome it, risen above it, but not allowed it to drag them down. I have a sign over my desk "Help Wanted No Irish Need Apply," from the Boston Sign co. 1916. I endured years of discrimination at school, being the token Catholic in a Jewish private schools, which was why I gravitated to my Black schoolmates and maybe that's why they accepted me.
I obviously do not know where you live and what you've experienced, but institutionalized racism and discrimination no longer exist in this country. On the other hand, if you become enraged because some Pakistani cabdriver won't pick you up, well, that's really your choice. You can turn that into resentment against everyone that's not like you or you can rise above it and be better than that cabdriver.
I believe in equal rights and equal opportunity for all. I believe in equal justice under the law. I also believe that each year we come closer, every time that racism is NOT passed on to a member of the next generation. Eventually, we will get there, but not if you intend to harbor resentment until we achieve perfection. Maybe Obama's election is a step on that road, but I prefer Morgan Freeman playing the role in a movie to the reality of a fast-talking Chicago opportunist who's having trouble getting through his first month in office.
"I obviously do not know where you live and what you've experienced, but institutionalized racism and discrimination no longer exist in this country."
Wow.
I'm glad all but one person understands Wrath's post that he's proud of the PROGRESS this country has made that a black man can be president.
It's a shame someone is trying to label him as some kind of a racist as a result (before I get called on it for misinterpreting, as well, "I'm afraid the amount of melanin in a person's skin seems to matter much more to you than it does to me," "Would you suggest that only whites are racist, because if that's what you believe, you are quite mistaken," and "You can turn that into resentment against everyone that's not like you or you can rise above it and be better than that cabdriver" are but three examples) and turn a touching post into an argument.
That's all I'll say because I don't want to encourage this very delusional person any longer.
NewYorkjoe: Wow!
I was going to let you have the last word (it is your blog, after all), but Attorney General Eric Holder's comments yesterday about how we are "a nation of cowards" because we are unwilling to discuss race problems deserves some response.
Obviously, I am not a coward, nor am I "delusional." I guess in this era of political correctness, some folks are afraid to express their views because it may offend some people.
On the other hand, I am offended by this recent cartoon in the New York Post and I do feel that it appears to equate President Obama with a chimpanzee. That is the suggestion that I got, although you could not honestly say that Obama had written the entire Stimulus package, still that was the inference and it may be the first time I have ever agreed with Rev. Al Sharpton. How dare a newspaper subject a Democratic president to the kind of treatment that only Republican presidents deserve! (Sarcasm intended)
In closing, I'll recount a little personal anecdote. Growing up in Manhattan, I became acquainted with Arlene Walker, the granddaughter of Old Mrs. Walker, the first Black, female millionaire. Mrs. Walker started a line of cosmetics specifically designed for "women of color." Neither Old Mrs. Walker nor her granddaughter ever complained of discrimination. They made their own way and built their own lives and overcame any obstacles in their way, but they never blamed Charlie putting his foot on their neck and keeping them back. These days, many Americans claim to be victims and blame many of society's perceived shortcomings for their lack of progress. This culture of victimization is encouraged by lawyers and the Democratic party, because they want you to be dependent and beholden to them. But, it's up to every individual whether they wish to use victimhood as a crutch or rise above their circumstances through their own efforts.
As for Eric Holder, I'm glad when I can get some Black friends and coworkers to visit me on the weekend. I've got a smoker and I make some nice Carolina-style minced barbecue and some dry-rub ribs and I'm just as proud of my Black guests as I am when they compliment my barbecue. You see Black folks are my guide whenever I go out. If I go to a restaurant or a bar and only see white faces, I know there's something wrong with the place. I'll just turn around and leave. Either the food's no good, the service is slow and sullen, or the prices are too high. So far, it has never failed.
Maybe I'll invite Eric for some barbecue this summer?
NewYorkjoe: I recall a line from The Revernd Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
That is a most worthy dream and I believe that every day, America comes a little bit closer to fulfilling that dream of a great, martyred American leader. However, I also feel that in electing Barack Obama, too many have judged him by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character. I hope that the content of his character will not resemble that of many other Chicago politicians of various hues that have served in the past, continue to serve, and have been impeached or asked to resign.
I continue to wish President Obama success because his failure will be failure for us all and could delay the eventual election of a true Black American president whose heritage includes ancestors who were freed slaves. Even more, however, I pray frequently that President Obama serve out his entire term in safety and health, not just for his own sake, but for America's sake as well.
Reading the conversations below, I think the appropriate comment is:
"There is no White America and no Black America; there is the United States of America"
(a reworking of a recent quote by Pres. Obama that was a little over-idealistic)
P.S.: "Succulent Prey" is now on my bookshelf. I'm looking forward to reading it, Wrath.
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