(ThyBlackMan.com) Why are we playing tricks on our minds on the eve of the most important election in our lifetime? Why are black pundits, commentators and others posing the question, “do blacks support Mr. Obama because he’s black?” Do we not get that we are alive to witness an event slaves could only dream of? Why must we feel guilty about a black president, anyway?
Truth is, I don’t! But I know the question is being posed (by whomever) along racial boundary lines. No credit is given to those, including me, who support the president not just because he’s black, but because he’s intelligent, he’s a visionary and he has the best plan for our country. Did I mention he’s black?
Did I mention that, upon his ascendancy nearly four years ago, millions of 
little black boys and black girls got a chance to see an occupant of the White House that looked like them? Did I mention that we now have the luxury of pointing to that forlorn figure and saying to them, “no more excuses”? Besides, is Mr. Obama’s racial heritage that much of an issue? Would the Korean community feel ‘guilty’ for supporting the first-ever Korean president?
When will we get this chance again? Do you really believe that Barack Obama as president will open the floodgates of other potential black men (or black women) to pursue the office of the president, especially in light of the recalcitrant reaction of the political Right (not to mention of mass abandoning of white working-class voters in the last four years)? I hope so. But it’s not a given (there is not even a handful with the savvy and strategical brilliance of Barack Obama).
Just think about it, on our watch, a black man was duly elected president for the first time in this nation’s history. And, on our watch, our brothers and sisters on the other side of the aisle have made it their political priority to make Mr. Obama a one-termer (which is just as demoralizing as losing in the first place).
On our watch! Partly because we think the first black president owes us something and partly because – due to the nuances of the presidency – shifting positions might diffuse our political loyalty (read: marriage equality). And lastly because we mistakenly believed that, with the ascendancy of Mr. Obama, we had arrived (all this talk about a ‘post-racial’ America). What if he had been elected during or just after Reconstruction?
Would Mr. Obama have received the overwhelming support of the first generation out of Slavery? I don’t know. But what I do know is we have the opportunity to say to future generations that we were faithful. Yes we debated and disagreed with some policies coming out of the White House, but, in the end, what was good for the masses trumped what was good for one.
The spell-binding lyrics of the Negro National Anthem by James Weldon Johnson say it best:
“Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us. Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on til victory is won.”
