What President Obama means for African-Americans.
This United States of America was founded on some strong principles of democracy and freedom. Yet they are lofty ideals that have never really materialized for those of the darker nation. The Africans who were brought to North America in shackles, property sold on auction blocks. The original people killed, deceived and hauled off to remote desolate places where morale is low and alcohol and casinos are abundant. Or the Mexicans and Latinos whose land was originally stolen and who are discriminated against for their cultural heritage and language.
Those of the darker nation have not been allowed to share in this promise, in this ideal, in this democratic free nation.
Oh but we have fought.
We have fought since the day we were born. For true justice, for equality for the same opportunity that our ‘fellow americans’ have. And we have found it difficult to call ourselves americans.
So,we call our selves many hyphenated derivatives so we can have pride in our identities and find strength. To call ourselves americans meant often to accept the discrimination , prejudice, violence, inequality and hatred that would bombard our doorsteps of life. Who would want to embrace a name that harbored such violence and hypocrisy? Yet this land was also our home and a place where our ancestors and our own family members would fight for true equality. It was the place where we built up cities, invented new technology and birthed great thinkers. Yet we have always held America like a bad cold trying to cure, to heal , to reign it in so it would no longer make us sick or sometimes kill us.
Nevertheless, we are proud of those who fought and worked tirelessly to make this American dream a reality.
And all of our hard work, the work of our ancestors was not in vein. We the people have turned a new page. We have entered a new era. We the people , not just of the darker nations, have elected through the democratic process a Black President. Understanding that only some 40 years ago this America allowed us to vote. That
Some 50 years ago the laws determined schools separate but un-equal.
So what does this mean to the once called Negro? To the 3/5’s man, woman and child? To those who were not allowed to own themselves? To those who toiled their lives away and never enjoyed the profits of their labor? To those who were denied education? To those who were hunted by dogs and seen as animals and property?
To those who were murdered and hung from trees or killed in cold bulleted blood for no other crime but for being dark skinned?
What has happened is a principle so lofty and almost unreachable has become more tangible. It has started to live up to its creed. Democracy. We the people ..to form a more perfect union…that all men should be created equal..
That we might also share this dream…might also participate and benefit from this democracy. That we might live like true free people, as human beings as equals as brothers and sisters.
That we might not be ashamed any more to carry a hyphenated name. To say that we are Americans too. That we have aspirations and the right to live, create, grow, and be as were born to be. Beautiful. Black. Proud.
Oh such a simple principle, Democracy, but in practice what a fight it has been.
And that fight is not finished. It has only turned a page. But there is so much more hope and promise now.
To be proud of a place because it is now a place that is realizing its own ideals.
We too have always been American. And now we, the people, the Black and Brown have been validated and included. We, with the world watch as we continue in making that dream a reality.
Its like we have been in the desert. Dropped off without warning when we were children. So we learned to survive and sometimes to even thrive with out much food or water. Yet we have never known home and always felt a little lost. And it is now that we see Home on the horizon. A place you know is home because it feels right from the inside. Our inner compass guides us because we have never fully known this place in our lifetimes.
So we are returning home again.
To justice, to equality, to freedom.
To real, tangible, hard fought for democracy.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
-The U.S. Constitution.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
-Declaration of Independence.
No comments:
Post a Comment