where were you when Obama made history?

so... america has a black president. excitement aside, what's next? history acknowledged, what does this mean for the future? really... what are WE willing to do about our future? in 2004 someone joked about obama being president after his speech at the dnc that year. i got choked up then and said, "man... if he gets that far, i will cry rare tears of joy." well... he did; and i did. last night i was moved to tears by how far we've come and the promise for where we will go.

this is so big. thinking about my ancestors who were forced to come here and then weren't allowed to be american. thinking about my grandmother and her siblings who weren't allowed to go to centennial park to see the christmas lights, who lived in a city that poured cement in a swimming pool rather than integrate it. thinking about all the old people in bordeaux who voted with me in the primaries and showed up in droves to vote in the general election, tired and aching, but proud to be black AND american. 

it's been hard for me to totally digest. anyone who knows me knows that injustice, unfairness, etc. doesn't sit well with me. i have grown jaded with having to point out the bad things this country has done to it's own people. i'm bored with the subtle racism that i encounter at my predominantly white college. we've been shitted on for years. and not just black people (but... mostly black people), but also poor people. women. mexicans. central and south americans. africans. iraqis. immigrants and minorities who are not european. the list is long... but now all of the above have a chance to turn this around and change the course of history.

i never though i'd see this happen. and i'm young. i thought if i ever saw this, it would be when my grandkids hit their twenties. now... not only have I seen this, but my grandmothers saw it. andrew young, messy jesse, and kings kids saw the realization of mlk's dream. my little brothers saw it. my kids won't know an america that never had a black president. they won't know what it's like to have bill clinton called the first black president.

the magnitude of this election is too much for my brain to handle right now. i've never been proud to be american. i've always felt glad, blessed, and lucky to have been born in america (and in california) as opposed to in a 3rd world country or the deep, rural south. but having never been disillusioned or misled about u.s. history, despite what we're taught in school; having been raised to be a free thinker; being black i've never been patriotic. i've never had any kind of faith that my government actually worked for me. though the election of a black man does not erase the years of oppression, the institutionalized racism, nor the fact that there are some really evil people in this country working against minorities. BUT it helps. it means that we CAN.

this is not a time for black people to start acting a fool because "one of our own" is the leader of the free world. it's for black people everywhere to step up to the plate, take personal responsibility, and live to our full potential. obama HAS erased the excuse. THE MAN is not holding you down anymore. we elected THIS MAN to lift you up.

i'm tearing up again. just thinking about the next few years. regardless of what happens with this term, in the future, when i tell my kids they can be and do whatever they want to be and do, it will be absolutely, unequivocally true. it's a new day for america. we are finally moving in the right direction. let's not screw it up.

"This victory isn't the change we seek. It only gives us the chance to make the change we seek." -Barack Obama