The Responsibility of Hope
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Can Obama Break free from the chains of his own mind?
Without a doubt, Tuesday, November 4, 2008 will become a date that is memorized by students across the United States, and in the world, as a great day in human history. It will be marked as a day when the most powerful, and arguably the most racist, nation in world history elected a person of African descent, the most vulnerable and exploited people in history, to lead itself.
But the election of Barack Obama does not change the fact that this country was built on the backs of African peoples. His election does not change that this nation continues to thrive and survive on the stolen and undervalued labor of people of color, particularly black folks, immigrants, and the unpaid labor of women in our homes. His election does not change the fact that America is an occupying power and continues to practice colonial rule at a time when even the old European colonial powers have largely recognized the fiscal, political, and metaphysical drain that pulls on perpetual colonizers.
Now that Senator Obama is President-elect Obama, he holds a unique responsibility to not only speak a rhetoric of change but to act as a change agent. If the hope that he has inspired is to grow instead of becoming a collective canker, he must show that he is willing to challenge, at least in as much as he can, the imperialist and capitalist nation that he will soon lead. In essence, a President Obama, if he expects to live up to the expectations that he has created, must imagine a new U.S. that begins to reject America as usual.
Barack Obama was elected President of the United States because of a confluence of personal charisma, a message of hope, and a set of political and economic circumstances created by eight years of monolithic Republican rule. Under that rule, the Right made no attempt to veil its attempts to transfer as much wealth from the working people of this nation to the corporate elite of America. November 4, 2008 was a grassroots repudiation of Wall Street politics.
Barack Obama rode into the White House on a wave of angst and a deep, fundamental need of the people to believe in something greater than themselves, something tangible, something different and yet something that looked and felt familiar. Working class people (white and black, brown, yellow and red) turned out based on hope. Barack Obama, through his words, actions, and astute politicking latched onto a nascent kernel of hope and fanned it into an impressive, historical, grassroots movement not seen in this country since the Civil Rights era. To win an election based on a message of hope is an awesome spiritual, mental, and political feat. Yet, with the raising of hopes comes the raising of expectations. And having the audacity to hope and to inspire hope in others also comes with a responsibility: the responsibility of hope.
Unfortunately, Obama, an avowed capitalist, seems to have a heart of gold and a mind that is still partially colonized. To judge him for being a product of the nation in which he raised is not helpful. Recognizing it helps us all to see that the responsibility of hope also resides with each of us. There will come a time when President Obama disappoints us. That is why it is incumbent on us, people of African descent, to use this political and spiritual moment as a time to organize our communities both as a basis for our own localized change but also as a physical, spiritual, and political support for President Obama when he inevitably stumbles.The chains of the mind, even in as inspiring a man as Barack Obama, are deep, long, solid, and largely invisible.
Fifty-two million people believed enough in Obama to go to the voting booths and vote their hopes. The day after the election the United States was still the United States. We are still at war in two nations. We still hold Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands in bondage. The unemployment rate continues to climb and the number of uninsured as well. The material nature of America did not change from one day to the next. But, anyone that has ears to hear and eyes to see or a spirit to feel could touch and taste the alteration of our perspective. The spiritual landscape of the United States radically shifted at 11:00pm EST when the last polls closed on the West Coast. At that moment, we set our feet to a new path, that if walked together, hand in hand with our new President, can lead us into a new way of being, one about which so many of us have dreamed, but one that few of us believed could even begin to happen in this lifetime.
We stand at a critical moment in our black history. Barack Obama owes a debt of hope to the people of this nation. His actions must begin and end with lifting up the least of us. Anything less is a betrayal of the inspiration and feeling that sent him to the White House. Yet, it is also our responsibility, We the Hopeful of these United States, to commit ourselves to living and being in a way that promotes freedom, builds and strengthens our black families and our communities, and helps, supports and holds lovingly and critically accountable Barack Obama.
We shall overcome. Today.
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great article brandon. xoxo
> YK
Well Said!!
Now is the time to seize the moment, gain momentum and move forward.
> David Berube
I totally agree with what you have said here, and I believe that in order to ride this momentum we should all be looking toward politics that are coalitional at their heart and we must continue to inspire those who are new to the processes of community activism and organizing that came out and supported Obama in unprecedented ways.
> Kandace Creel Falcon
Love this piece. I think we will have to stand by this president even at times when he won’t be able to fulfill all our expectations.
> Josh
The chains on the black community are self imposed. As long as anyone of any color is looking to someone else free them or vindicate their plight, they are in self imposed bondage. No one is arguing that the Negro race in America has been historically mistreated. However, it is past time to get over that and move forward. Nowhere else in this world can you go that has the opportunities this country offers. So when you are sitting on your couch and blaming (insert excuse for failure here) for your current situation, realize that you are your own worst enemy. Get up!!! Go to school, start a business, make a list of things you want to accomplish and devise a plan to get there. But whatever you do, stop blaming someone or something for your laziness. By all means stay away from people who ascribe to the notion of how rotten this country is (as in this article). A country is made up of people. You are an American and those comments are an attack on just what a rotten person you are. I don’t know about you but I get quite ill about that kind of talk. God does not create junk and he created you to be wildly successful beyond even your wildest dreams. So go! Dream, live, succeed!!!!
> Johnny Johnson
You have completely inspired me this morning! Excellent, excellent article!
> Kirsten
Mr. Johnson i respect your opinion but i don´t like you opinion. If you are not a african american than i don´t think you understand and if you are then your just ignorant which do´t mean your stupid it means you also do´t understand. So i am going to go out on a limb and say your not african american therefore yes you have the right to your opinion but your not qualified to made the statements that you made. You used the word lazy first of all were not lazy and it we are we have the right to be as lazy as we want maybe its the effects of the past you try working from sun up to sun down without pay maybe you might feel like a little time off or being a little lazy. It must be very nice for you to be able to dictate to a people when they can be american and when not. You said god create people to be rich beyond their wildest dreams (greed) the ones that are losing their homes,cars,thing, junk,tell them what god said. You said to get over it maybe you should try telling the jews to get over it and see what they tell. So mr. Johnson you get over it get over the fact that we will not and Obama will not change that. We have a black president but when its time to shout we will shout.
butch
> butch
check
> Logan R. Lorentz
Very intelligent thorough. I think that furthermore that our inability to act as a nation will possibly be our downfall by affecting the ecconomy by American citizens not being serviced or slowly serviced or prevented from working or delayed in the street or bank lines. People have taken a very strong beleif that this government and country was founded on and poisened it for the intentions contrary to that beleif. The American majority precedes its own domination through its domination of others. No one is perfect and obama will need God to acheive the necessary result. America needs to work together and put aside there differences and to stop being so calice and aggressive with violence.
> Logan R. Lorentz
Godbless us all.
> Logan R. Lorentz
This was written so beautifully to not only inspire, but to hold us ALL responsible for the plight ahead of us. It is two part…Obama must come through on the HOPE he promised, but we ALL must do our part to stay involved, and as you put is so eloquently, “living and being in a way that promotes freedom, builds and strengthens our black families and our communities, and helps, supports and holds lovingly and critically accountable Barack Obama.
Awsome and inspiring!
> Alicia Booker
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