Approaching the Promised Land, by Trevin Franklin
November 4, 2008 is a day that will forever live in infamy across the globe. To this day I am still in shock that America has elected its first African-American president. As I watched the news channels call the election I felt goose bumps and tears began to run down my face. The scenes of Grant Park in Chicago, Harlem, and Atlanta are forever engraved in my mind. One news organization showed the celebration in Atlanta and there was a shot of a young lady on her knees in tears of celebratory joy. This summed it up for millions of blacks in America.
Earlier during the day I had had lunch with one of my mentors and we were discussing potential outcome of for the night. I must admit that I was still a little skeptical of President-Elect Obama’s chances of winning even though all of the polls had him leading, on the other my mentor what extremely confident that he would win and would win by a large margin. I must acknowledge that the mentor I was having lunch with was a white guy and we probably viewed things somewhat differently went it came to race relations in America. While he was confident and optimistic, I was careful and concerned. As young African-American, I was given the “you can be anything you want to be” speech with the unspoken, yet power understanding that it came with some limitations.
November 4, 2008 changed that unspoken understanding. What this election and this moment did was shift the foundation of race relations in America. No longer can America just ignore race as if it is this disease ridden object in the corner of the room that dare not be touched or acknowledged. The election of President-Elect Obama is the centerpiece of the manifestation of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream for America. More than forty-years ago Dr. King dreamt of America one day judging a person by the content of the character and not by the color of their skin. On November 4 this faze of his dream was realized.
Hearing President-Elect Obama’s acceptance speech reminded me of the speech that I have listened to many of times in the past, Dr. King’s I’ve Been to the Mountaintop speech. It was almost as if Obama was channel Dr. King when he spoke about the road ahead being long and the climb being steep and how it may take sometime for America to get there, but he stated that “I promise you- we as a people will get there.” In Dr. King’s speech he too spoke about the difficult days ahead and how he didn’t know what might happen in the days ahead, but he was supremely confident that we would get there because he had he had been to the ecclesiastical mountaintop and seen the proverbial promised land. In no way I am saying that Obama is this ecclesiastical figure, but I truly believe that he is the man for this moment.
As black America and America, in general, approach the historic day of January 20, 2009, one day after we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Day, we are now faced with new realities in America especially black America. Now that President-Elect Obama has been elected to the highest office in the nation, black America must begin to revamp itself, especially my generation. The days of thinking that being smart and speaking with proper grammar was “acting white” must end because as Mr. Obama has shown being smart can be cool and enable you to achieve some great things. The days of idolizing the fraudulent rap culture must end if we are to truly see the promise land. Also the days of blaming white America for our problems must also end because as Mr. Obama has proven that we can be anything we would like to be if we would only put our minds and to it and work our butts off.
This election is truly historic for African-Americans, but what must be understood by African-Americans is that Barack Obama is not just the President for African-Americans but he is the President for all American, if we will understand that and not expect him to just work to improve the lives of black people, but of all of people then I truly believe that we will finally see the promised land and bask in all of its wonders.