Inauguration Day has come and gone while the framework of America’s problems continues to rest with the old covenants of class warfare and greed. Since Obama is now the first “African-American” President of the United States, the discussion on race has changed from the inconvenient, “How badly has racism injured our nation’s economy?” to the more convenient, “Did you ever think you’d see this day?”I always thought I’d see the day when there would be a Black President of the United States. I always believed that despite institutional efforts to thwart such an event, there were/are qualified Black men and women to lead this Nation, and would one day do just that… Intelligence and wisdom are both colorblind.
Barack Obama is a great man, but he is not the first person of color who was fit for the Presidency, as Jackie Robinson was not the first Black baseball player qualified to play in the “Major” Leagues. However, because of the state of race in America, these two individuals came upon the scene somewhat quickly and unexpectedly. So, yes… Jackie and Barack were the right “Black” people at the right time.
Both Obama and Robinson answered challenges that no African in America answered prior. Both challenges were directed at institutions that needed their leadership for economic survival.
Realizing the history of some Americans who would rather injure the country socially by denying people access to their neighborhoods, schools and businesses, it only seems logical that an American economy based on the dishonesty and exclusionary greed of Wall Street moguls who bamboozle their investors, would eventually be injured by its own self-indulgence.
Both models, Wall Street and Jim Crow, are based on the same principles of selfishness to the exclusions of those considered “outsiders.” Both models thrive in the inequality of their own false principles of “self-preservation” at the expense to the common good.
The major failing of America’s most enduring institution, Jim Crow, led to new rules that provided hope, and a re-birth of America’s promise to all of its citizens, beginning with the inclusion of Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball. From there we experienced Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voters Rights Act of 1965 just to name a few… Many institutions in the South and isolated areas throughout the country thumbed their noses at these news rules for a time.
In his book, Race Matters, Dr. Cornel West wrote: “Our ideals of freedom, democracy, and equality must be invoked to invigorate all of us, especially the landless, propertyless, and luckless.” In other words, there is no way we move forward with Obama by giving billions of dollars to companies that will only spend it on their own self interests.
West continues: “We must invigorate the common good with a mixture of government, business, and labor that does not follow any existing blueprint.”
These new rules will be implemented with the same stated objective in mind: “Liberty and justice for all.” If we are to survive this institutional challenge we must ensure that the new rule makers of the Obama administration always consider the least while negotiating with the powerful. We must make sure that all stakeholders are represented barring the creation of a third American institution that could bring this recalcitrant nation literally to its knees.
G.L.M.
