NEWS & LETTERS, October - November 2009
Voices from the Inside Out
Obama and U. S. youth
by Robert Taliaferro
Youth! If of a certain race, creed, or economic background, this five-letter word can be lauded as a blessing--or touted as anathema.
In the world of Barack Obama, youth are at the core of his ideas for the future of the U.S. So it should not be surprising that he, like presidents before him, would wish to address this future constituency, allowing students to hear from "their" president.
At another time in history this would not be an issue, but those who feel the U.S. has changed, need look no further than Texas or Wisconsin to see an overwhelming constituency of those who feel that a message from a person of color has no place in their child's education.
The opposition to Obama's school address is said to be a product of ultra-conservative Right activists such as Rush Limbaugh, and though this is partially true, to attribute this completely to such individuals would be a smoke-and-mirror illusion that hides the real problem.
What is truly amazing is the number of Black and white intellectuals--both liberal and moderate--who seem taken aback by the vehement opposition to the core ideas Obama presents: universal healthcare; wars on poverty, illiteracy, broken families, joblessness--things that have been on the agendas of presidents in the past, and that will be on agendas of presidents in the future.
What is equally amazing is that those very same persons can't bring themselves to verbalize the fundamental problem that has tainted the U.S. experience since the country was founded: the issue of race.
Race is as viable today as it has been throughout this country's history. In the South, it took a $2.3 billion settlement against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1999 for the government to admit discriminatory actions towards Black farmers. Ironically, the USDA has blocked many claims to that settlement.
In New Orleans, people of color have essentially been blocked from returning to the city due to "the stark exposure of an economic apartheid" (Colorlines, July-August 2009) which has been going on for nearly four years.
In California and other border states, children of immigrants born in this country will not have the same rights as other children born in this country because of the status of their parents. Shades of Dred Scott abound.
Fortunately, the hatemongers and doomsayers are not in the majority, for if they were, neither Barack H. Obama nor any person of color would reside in the White House as anything but a servant.
The fact that a Black man was elected as president is an achievement in itself, but what's more an achievement is that for the first time in its history, this country has to actually address race openly.
Racial, class and gender politics extend well beyond the scope of Obama, or any president regardless of their name or the color of their skin, and ultimately the U.S. experience will have a new chapter written that expands upon its better virtues.
What scares closet bigots the most is that at the tip of this revolutionary process will be this nation's youth, living in a time when a Black man--or a woman--or any person of color, can actually become president.
The definitive aspect of the U.S. experience will be written by the generation of youth who were not tempered by a sense of hopelessness, but rather those who grew up in the time of the Obama presidency.
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