It’s Still Not Enough…

Today I wanted to take the opportunity to write about an observation that I’ve made throughout the past three weeks.  A very close friend of mine of Jamaican decent had stopped by my parent’s house one lovely weekend.  My father happened to be in town so we sat down and engaged in an intellectual conversation of Black America as we saw it presently.

My father, who had been through alot in his time and seen much more than me and my friend started off by stipulating that the country wasn’t the same as it had been years ago.

“If you don’t think this is the year of the Black Man, you’re a bloody fool.  It’s our time now!  Think about what’s going on.  Obama possibly winning the election.  This is a huge deal!  Back when I was coming into this country, this is way before you were born son, I had to fill out some paperwork and they specifically asked me how to identify myself.  They gave me the following options:  White/Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, Negro, and finally “Other”.  That was it!”

It was at this moment that me and my friend reeled over laughing and yelling the words ‘oh hell no…‘  My friend who shook his head in amusement asked, ‘what did you fill out?’

My dad looked at us both and winked, ‘I selected, other.’  We both nodded.  We understood exactly what he was saying.  There is without a shred of a doubt that the comeback of the century is being made with regards to positive Afrocentric movement in the United States.  We couldn’t have possibly imagined what it was like growing up in the era of our parents or our grandparents.  And because of this, we needed to be grateful.

I remember celebrating Christmas at my grandmothers house and an old Humphrey Bogart flick (Sabrina) came on and all of the youngsters including myself crowded around the tube.  Now I don’t know if it was because it was Christmas and there was nothing to do at the house or just the sight of watching a black and white flick, but almost every black child there was fascinated by the dress code and the decency that revolved around the movie.  One cousin of mine actually yelled that he wished he could have lived back then.  Shortly after I said the same thing.

You know how sometimes you have those moments where you say something…and then you realize how incredibly stupid it sounds afterwards?  Like you take a hard look at the facts and realize, ‘wait’, what the hell am I talking about?!

Yeah well that’s what happened.  An elder in our family who had been observing all of us from a distance then replied calmly and slowly,

‘Correction…no you wouldn’t.  In fact, you should be grateful that you don’t live in this times.  We all should.’

He was right.  From a strictly historical standpoint growing up in those times was extremely difficult.  The knowledge of history it seemed, my very minor in college, had eluded me.  Maybe it was the acting which had a very cheery undertone to it that did it.  Or perhaps the fact that it was a black and white flick.  Who knows.  Either way the elder who commented was completely right.  And that’s all I wanted to write about.

Either way, the emergence of Obama as our possible president is great.  But it’s not enough.  Not nearly my friends.  But it is a step in the right direction.