Columnist James Ingram
I can’t express how exceedingly proud I am that my senator, Barack Obama, has done the unthinkable in ascending to the highest office in the land, and that my parents and I were alive to actually witness the very thing that we never envisioned as recently as one year ago.
And isn’t it appropriate that (after 233 years of American history) a family of African descent will finally occupy the very White House which, in fact, was built by African slaves’ labor?
The only downside to this historic achievement is the reality that, in President Obama’s ascendancy, the state of Illinois and America will lose the only African-American member of the U.S. Senate.
But that doesn’t have to be. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has the awesome task of replacing Obama. The preference of Obama to replace him is said to be his trusted advisor and Chicago political insider, Valerie Jarrett.
However, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has also made his intentions to fill the vacant senate post known and is, reportedly, lobbying to be Obama’s successor.
If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Jarrett since most Democratic governors, especially with approval ratings as low as Blagojevich’s, would love to curry favor with a sitting Democratic president.
Whatever Blagojevich does, he’d be foolish (especially with two amply qualified black candidates) to allow the Senate to return to its former status of the “good old boys” club.
It’s important because, since Reconstruction, there have only been three black U.S. Senators: Ed Brooke of Massachusetts (1966-1972), Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois (1992-1998) and Obama.
I take great pleasure in having had the opportunity to vote for (and elect) two-thirds of all African-American U.S. senators since Reconstruction, though I wish that I shared that rarified distinction with many others throughout America.
The beauty of the election of a President Obama is that now I’m sincerely optimistic that African Americans, Hispanics, women and others will, ultimately, achieve the unthinkable.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not expecting a miracle. I realize that while the ceiling of aspiration may have been removed for many, that there will still be some backlash (from some) who may still harbor bitterness at the thought of an African-American president.
Yet, while on a recent vacation, I can’t tell you the number of European, Caribbean, Mexican and other Americans who expressed hope that Obama would triumph, because of their disgust and fatigue with the American, business-as-usual, “cowboy” mentality of George W. Bush.
No, it won’t be a miracle, but the imagery of an African-American family occupying The White House, of Barack Obama’s image on TV screens (for 4 to 8 years), in front of American classrooms and meeting with world leaders, will revolutionize the way that blacks are perceived and received.
That’s how stereotypes are destroyed. Just as light erases darkness, positive imagery makes it very difficult for stereotypes to exist in the same space.
Let’s hope that the potential light of an Obama presidency will at least begin to eradicate America’s 400-year-old racist legacy once and for all.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com.