Skip to main content

A Black President

I am so excited.

First, let me say that I did not vote for Barack Obama because he is black. I voted for him because I thought he was the better candidate, and will make the better president. I think he will help how the rest of the world sees the United States. I don't think he is the Messiah and I'm sure I will be disappointed in him at times during the next 4 (or 8) years. However, I think this is the right direction for America to go in and I am thrilled because of the person we have elected, while still being unbelieving.

However.

While a lot of me wants to rant about how I can be a Christian and still be a Democrat, how liberal is not a bad word, how pro-life should be for the duration of life and not just and how I don't understand why McCain was seen as the Christian candidate by so many when he's the one of the two who had an affair, got divorced, and doesn't claim to go to church... I'm not going to right now. I want to talk about how excited I am to have a black president.

Yes, I know he is half white. But it wasn't black people who initiated the one drop rule. It was white people and black people suffered for it in a lot of ways. I for one, am totally happy to say that we have our first black president.

But how happy I am for my own self is nothing compared to how happy I am for all the kids I have worked with. For eight years I worked with primarily black students who were resigned to the fact that presidents would always be old white men. As a white person, I could tell them that they could be anything that they want to be - even the president! - but it's really hard to believe that something is possible when you've never seen it. These kids finally have an example.

When I got to Oakland, I didn't think racism was still as alive and well as it is. It may not be as obvious as it has been in the past but it is still entrenched. If you don't believe me, feel free to leave a comment and say so and I'll dedicate a post just to examples of entrenched racism but I'm not going to do that now.

I'm just going to say that I will never have to hear again that an eight year old thought they "they just didn't let black people be president." And for these kids, that is huge. It's a barrier that needed to be broken.
Labels:

Comments

Jessamyn Harris said…
hooray!
now will you please go visit your old school and see what the kids are thinking and saying this week? I'm so curious...
7:46 PM
House Dreams said…
I have kids of color in my class and the ones that are aware of such things are happy to have a black president.

I am happy to have a young president. I think it is time to pass the torch to the new generation.

Obama's acceptance speech was rich with intelligence and compassion. McCain proved to be a gentleman at the last, expressing heartfelt hope and encouraging support for the new president.

Let's see how the runaway crises gripping our country can be slowed. The train has to be stopped before it can be repaired, backed up and headed in the right direction once again.
10:15 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class....
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other pri...
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea...
Post a Comment
Read more