I am suddenly overwhelmed with emotion.
There was a man interviewed on the NBC Nightly News who, at the age of 100, traveled from New Orleans to Washington, DC to witness the historic inauguration of the first black President of the United States of America. This was a man who is old enough to have been a cotton picker in the south, who survived hurricane Katrina. I think of how I never would have imagined that I would see a black president in my lifetime, and I can't even fathom what he is experiencing at this moment.
This makes me think of my father, who was born in 1927 and lived in Tennessee for part of his childhood. A man for whom it was normal to drink from designated water fountains and sit in specific areas due to the color of his skin. I think of all the things I know he was denied, and wonder about the things I don't know about, privileges that we now take for granted, but were denied to him and others based on skin color. A man whose birth certificate listed him as "colored". He died in 1988, and of course I always wonder what my life would be like if he were still alive. But at this moment, I think of all of the sacrifices he made, the difficulties he experienced as a man of color, for me and my brothers. I wish he could be here to witness this.
I think of how it makes so much sense that our first black president would come from Hawaii. The state is not without its problems, including discrimination. But I never felt, as a woman or as a black person, that I couldn't achieve anything I put my mind to. Before my first visit to Virginia, I never really felt my that race mattered. Here I'm often reminded that I am a minority. Sometimes it's subtle, but it's there. It was back home in the islands that I was allowed (for the most part) to be a person rather than a stereotype. It's at times like this that I remember how lucky I was to grow up in Hawaii.
Speaking of... please keep your fingers crossed that the poor kids from my alma mater's marching band don't turn into human icicles in this weather.
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3 comments:
I love this entry.
Thanks for sharing your memories of your father and the terrible things that he had to endure, I was really moved by this post. I have to admit, I too never imagined that I would live to see a black president, I always felt that despite the claims of democracy and freedom that there was too much deep seated racism within America for this ever to happen but I am so pleased that it has. I was always incredibly nervous with Bush in charge, I felt that he was too impulsive, too gung-ho and too like a little boy following in Daddy's war mongering footsteps. Now I feel a sense of calm. Barrack Obama is the first President within my lifetime to convcince me that he is a man of great intelligence, sincerity and capable of doing a great job in a calm, thoughtful and reflective manner.
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