Growing up adults told us teenagers: We could be whatever we wanted to be. Then it was said, underneath breath, that none of us could become President of The United States.Why? We never asked. The mirror made it obvious.
But the inauguration of Barack Obama retired that remark and placed it into the catalog of 20th century comments no longer applicable in the new century of change Americans believed and wanted. (The 21st century began repeating the past, a second Bush and a second Iraq war.)
The day of Obama’s inauguration, right before the historic event was televised, I was conflicted because I wondered what really, if anything, was going to change, then I remembered a similar day in college.
It was April 27, 1994, the global event was South Africa’s first multi-racial elections, and Nelson Mandela ascended from prison to the presidency. Black Americans identified with the South African struggle to end apartheid because it bore resemblance to ending segregation in the American south.
So when the impossible was achieved by Mandela I celebrated with my college friends. Not only was it the biggest historical event of our lifetime, but it made us question the biggest barrier we believed during our childhoods. We asked among ourselves could there be a Black president of the United States? But the voice of reasonable doubt credited Mandela’s success to the Black majority population in South Africa, numbers Black American’s lacked; therefore it couldn’t happen in the United States.
About Post Author
