Someone asked me today what I thought about last night’s primary victory, the one that marked Barack Obama as the presumptive nominee for President of the United States. The question came after I asked him and another friend to step away from a heated argument they were having about the significance or supposed lack of what had just happened.
This was my response:
I am, without question, the biggest cynic most of you will ever meet. And honestly, I am still uneasy about the way the media continues to refer to Obama as a “Black man,” as if the one drop rule is still the standard we live by. Earlier this year, I made a conscious decision to keep those feelings to myself. For a number of reasons I will not unpack right now.
But I have to admit, this morning something shifted in me.
It took some time for the weight of it all to register, but once it did, I was surprised by how deeply it moved me. Even through all my skepticism and reluctance to be swept up in national emotion, I could not deny what I felt. I was proud. Proud of this moment. Proud of what it means.
I know there is still a long road ahead. I am not naive about that. But today, I am choosing to stand in this moment. I am choosing to feel the soft patch of grass beneath my feet, to breathe in the clarity of this sky above my head, and to let it all be what it is, a piece of history that belongs to all of us.
This is not the finish line. But it is a step in a direction many of us never grew up believing was possible.
Today is ours. Let us hold it. Let us feel it. Let us live it.
Great qoute from PostBourgie
“every cynic was once a wounded optimist who still secretly longs that he/she will be proven wrong.”
Only November will tell how I’ll see the cup from now on.
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