(Akiit.com) I became compelled to write this article due to several people, Black women in particular, asking me if I thought the “White Power Fanatics” would assassinate Barack Obama if he became President of the United States. More importantly, they used that speculation as a reason for NOT supporting him.
At first, the mere thought of an Obama assassination blew my mind into a temporary tailspin of shock. But, as I watched Barack Obama’s interview on Black Entertainment Television on January 8, 2008, Mr. Obama concurred and said many Black women fear for his life, therefore are holding back on their support of him as President.
Could the unreported REAL reason why many people are saying that Hillary Clinton has a significant portion of the Black female vote be due to the maternal protective nature of Black women or could it be possible that a Black President may never be elected due to a White Supremacist system fearing that any Black person in the powerful position as President of the USA could lead to the worldwide dismantling of White Supremacy?
Of course, I told these Black women NOT to turn that type of fear into support for Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, or not voting at all. The REAL question is, if not now, then when do Americans take the collective pertinent steps towards moving forward and support a qualified Black person for President? True progress can only be accomplished through sacrifice, hard work, courage, diligence, and a hope that one day racism could be a terrible belief system of the past.
I’ve heard Hillary Clinton say that older women have stated to her, they want to live long enough for a woman to be in the White House. The truth is ONLY White women have lived in the White House, maybe not as President, but definitely have reaped significant benefits due to a society that places more roadblocks on race rather than on gender. Neither a Black man nor a Black woman has lived in the White House, and Hillary wants to live there AGAIN and AGAIN! Forty-two out of 43 US Presidents have been married.
The shock and dismay of a possible Obama assassination was correlated with my own fear associated with the publishing of my first book, The Climate: A Perspective Unvisited. Surely, writing to enhance a more equal society based on race by exposing the origins of racism based on indigenous habitats that created racial mentalities hits at the core of a popular belief system of White Supremacy, could possibly anger someone to committing murder towards the messenger. But people ARE killed everyday for a lot less. As a matter of record, over 17,000 homicides were committed in the US last year, and I bet none of them occurred due to any major advancement of racial equality.
At the root, racism is a serious silliness because it represents a false premise that dictates that if someone is born looking a particular way is either better or worse than someone else with no action, conduct, or behavior required. No one chooses his or her race, not even Michael Jackson, who suffers from the skin de-pigmenting disease called vitiligo. I work everyday for the widespread belief that it doesn’t matter if you’re Black or White. That day simply doesn’t exist today and being politically correct, burying our heads in the sand, or being racially stationary benefits nobody but the ones who are the benefactors of White Supremacy.
Barack Obama isn’t the first Black person to run for the office of President, but it is believed that he has the BEST qualifications and a real shot of winning the coveted prize of being The Leader of the Free World. There was the late Shirley Chisholm, then Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Carol Mosley Braun, and now adding Cynthia McKinney to the roster who have attempted this necessary benchmark hurdle that will teach more and more human beings that race is simply a subcategory within the human gene pool, and race, in no way, should have ever dictated that White life is more valuable than Black life.
Don’t misunderstand my words with some type of race doesn’t matter mentality. I just wish that race didn’t matter, especially when comparing the number of nuclear families, education, economics, incarceration rates, and health disparities were examined. Racism is a chain reaction from a racist past, which is a driving force in the continuing quality of life being significantly better for Whites than for Blacks.
Barack Obama is a combination of a White and Black parent and since bi-racial children were forced to live in slave quarters with other Blacks, they too, HAD to identify themselves as Black because White men didn’t admit to fathering “Beige” offsprings in those days.
There have been advancements in regards to race and everyone can be commended for trying if, indeed, they really did contribute to the day racism is ended. That compliment really goes out to Whites that are winning, because they chose RIGHT over WHITE.
To fear for Barack Obama’s life is truly understandable, after all, there were the assassinations of human rights advancers such as Merger Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others. But consider the advancing accomplishments of Kofi Annan, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell who are still alive today and have benchmarked that Blacks can lead the United Nations, be Secretaries of State, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of State.
Consider this: Perhaps Barack and his wife, Michelle, have determined the risk is worth the progress for the GREATER GOOD, and the possibility that racism can, indeed, be chipped away can lead to the end of racism worldwide. And to truly enhance distancing real racism takes more than ONE win in the 90 percent White state of Iowa. Electing Mr. Barack Obama as the first Black President of the USA will judge OUR true progress. Now that milestone will not end racism, but it surely chips away at barriers that once existed.
Therefore, it is my suggestion that if you or someone you know want to protect Barack Obama and his family, think of the bigger picture, which is a world rid of racism, so EVERYONE has the same chances of attaining good health, wealth, and happiness.
Lastly, to operate from a place of fear will NEVER produce PROGRESS. Barack Obama, indeed, has the Audacity of Hope and how dare any of us deny the Dreams From His Father.
Written By Pearl Jr.