On Barack Obama in Post MLK America
My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
Psalms 57: 4
April 4th marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Illinois Senator Barack Obama is leading the Democratic Primary and may very well clinch his party’s nomination. This would be an historic victory and tremendous achievement. Moreover, his popularity and broad appeal represent great strides for African-Americans and America as a whole. Although Senator Obama has not officially won his party’s nomination and the general election is more than half a year away, his achievements thus far are immensely significant for several reasons.
Primarily, as American history goes, this is a tremendous leap forward in a short period given the small changes in first 350 years. Senator Obama’s appeal represents a major attitude shift in the more than our decades since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; legislation which represented the full realization of African-American citizenship. Technically, the 14th amendment, ratified in 1866, by law extended full citizenship to the newly freed slaves. Southern states completely ignored that fact, with the silent complacency of Congress. Even in 1917, as President Woodrow Wilson, set on coming to our European allies’ defense during WWI, asked Congress for a declaration of war so that the world “be made world safe for democracy” America itself had failed dearly as a democracy. It took nearly a century to enforce rights granted by the constitution. Thus this, within such a short period is truly remarkable.
Moreover, black American men have never had a such a broad appeal in mainstream American society. African-American men have been the victims of America’s cruelest hatred. One of the great American atrocities is the senseless lynching of countless innocent black men in a land whose pledge of allegiance, in true American ironic fashion, declares that we are “One nation under G-d indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” My sweet dearly departed father, may the Lord keep him forever, faced this hatred in rural South Carolina as a young boy. Today it is still very difficult for many of them to even hail a cab in New York City; a simple task many others never give a second thought. In many major cities such as Detroit, black men have a unemployment rate as high as 50%. Black men still have an incredibly high incarceration rate; nearly a quarter of the black male population has been or currently is a defendant in the criminal justice system, they are often scapegoats in very public crimes (Anyone remember Susan Smith?) and even more tragically the victims of police brutality.
Finally, his name is Barack (Swahili for blessed) Obama. One of the dehumanizing aspects of the African American experience is the loss of culture. That is no where more apparent than in the names wear. Sure in the 1960’s, people like Malcolm X, disassociated themselves from Eurocentric surnames, but still today the overwhelming majority of us continue to carry the names of our ancestors’ Anglo-Saxon slaveholders. I am proud to be a Baker (or on the maternal sides: McArthur, McCormick, Sowells or Dibgy), no matter the origins; however it would be a sweet turn of history if the first black president did have a name from Africa.
For most of the four centuries of African presence in America, we have, as the Psalm above suggests, been amongst lions and the US continues to be a very a racially divided society and that more than likely will not change any time soon but perhaps November 2008 may be the definitive response to The Staples’ Singers long unanswered question When Will We Be Paid?
Selah, G-d has not forgotten us.
