The Uniqueness and challenges of Obama's African-American Identity

[Perky]

It occurs to me that Obama's heritage is unique. He is truly african american and yet his family knows nothing of either slavery or the 1960s civil rights struggle. Because he is not of that era and does not share that experience he may well avoid the labeling (deserved or not) that African-American have overplayed the considerable notion that are oppressed by the dominant culture.On that basis, he may well prove to be a new type of hero to African Americans in a transcendent hopeful way and a little unnerving to Southern whites who while no longer racist are skeptical about Black claims to additional entitlement.

That is not to say that oppression does not continue to persist, but rather that he may be able to transcend the "angry, defiant, self importance" of the wounded black man which the larger culture tends to either want to ignore or is highly suspicious of.

The African-american political experience and power structure is inexorably linked to the pulpiteers (Whether it be Malcolm or Martin, or Louis or Jesse) The big question is how will Martin's descendants respond to an Obama candidacy. If he does not genuflect towards Sweet Auburn will the word go forth that he is an "uncle tom"; that he does not recite the creed; that he can not be trusted because he does not share our experience? Or if he does embrace the mythos and the black leadership does he wind up pushing away those whites who appreciate his message of hope and want to move beyond Selma and the Bus Boycott

He can neither embrace nor distance himself from that generation, but he may be able to show himself to be the rightful heir and prophetic fulfillment of Martin's Dream.The question in my mind is how does Obama thread this needle.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

[treestar]

1. It would be fascinating to get the perspective of

African-Americans whose parents/grandparents, or up immigrated from Africa post slavery.

I know of people who immigrated here from Sierra Leone and Liberia, which makes them AA two times over if they are descended from those who settled in those countries as former slaves (both were established as places for escaped or former slaves to go to).