A Black Man. I feel like the words just got some new meaning after last night. Like I just can’t whisper or just say ‘a black man’ today. I got to shout it! I got to say it hard and powerful-like, like Denzel said it inMalcolm X. Like Malcolm X said it on 125th. I got to capitalize each word. A Black Man. It’s an article, an adjective and a noun, but this morning it’s a definitive statement. There’s no verb, but it’s a hell of a sentence. Eff that, it’s a whole damn story with a optimistic ending.
Barack got the Democrat’s nod?! A Black Man... for President?
Whoa…
If I were Barack Obama, I would have woke up this morning, woke up Michelle and the kids, and put on Kanye's "Through the Wire." I would have blasted it until the floors rattled and I thought Kanye was in my living room. And then I would have danced harder than I ever danced before in life. When 'Ye sings, "this is history in the making, man!!!" I woulda hollered and thrown up both my hands, then shouted along while running through the house with my family just running and shouting along behind me. We woulda kept dancing--hard--with our arms in the air to the song on repeat until we were exhausted, gasping for breath and dripping in sweat and funky(!) and all fell out on each other in a giggling heap.
I hope Obama and the fam had a moment last night, a behind the scenes nobody's watching, act a fool, got damn it feels good not to just see people up on it, but to be that Black Man up on it moment. I hope he danced and laughed. I hope a grown man got giddy and had to cover his mouth to hold all that laughter and joy in. Sometimes you don't want to let it out, just want to let it bubble up and rumble around inside you because it feels so good. I hope he found some other Black men (like his very sexy personal assistant. Read here) and gave dap (not handshakes) all around. I hope he took off his Nic patch and smoked a Jack with his feet up. I hope he smiled so hard and so long his cheeks hurt. I hope he put on some aviators and had a Black Superhero moment. I hope someone played "Don't Sweat the Technique" in the background and the beauty of the selection wasn't lost on anyone present. I hope he went home and put it on his wife.
I looked across the aisle on the train today and someone was reading the Daily News. I caught the cover line, "History!" with Obama’s pic underneath it. I teared up. Man, this is amazing. Black folk weren't guaranteed the vote until 65 and 50 and change years later we got a Black Man with a real chance to be president?
Wow.
My Dad grew up in Mississippi in the 40s and 50s under Jim Crow, segregation and all that separate but equal bullshit. I know he never thought Black people would make it this far, especially in his lifetime. I didn't even think it in mine.
A Black Man... for President? I feel like an old-timer.
Well, you don't say?