Posted on 02/19/2008 5:03:06 PM PST by SJackson
Waiting on hope, I stood outside for two hours in Wisconsin snow with frozen feet. I listened to people's intimate conversations because we were that close. I felt pressed by white people around me, and I felt fine. I saw African-Americans from a distance without panic. I was one of thousands, and no fear gripped me, even as the thousands pressed forward.
I let myself be carried, then I walked and walked up stairs, finally arriving at the tiptop. There was no place but the top for a woman who doesn't like heights.
This night I was a woman waiting on hope. I waited to hear hope, to feel hope. I waited to believe in hope again in my heart, my city, my state, my country, and most importantly, I wanted hope as an American citizen.
Then Barack Obama came to the podium. I didn't have to wait one moment longer.
I am an African-American woman. This fact alone speaks loudly in a country where I have always been boxed into race and gender as if both were evil. I share the bottom of this society with African-American men, and everyone else, including the newly arrived in America, have more opportunity and are welcomed better than us. I have never felt safe around unknown white people, let alone thousands. Whenever I enter a place, I look first to see who is like me. I scan a room for color because black means a modicum of safety for me while white is unknown. The unknown can be dangerous, and I never forget that ever!
Gender comforts me in outnumbered situations only if they are women of color. White women have betrayed us again and again historically, and when I was young, they betrayed me personally. In white women's "herstory" there are few examples of standing with African-American women against oppression. Who remembers that Frederick Douglass not only advocated for the end of slavery but for women to have the right to vote?
Mature, I've learned to sift and test the unknown. I have friends of many colors. I've learned to look for integrity behind every color. Young and vulnerable, I had white teachers who spoke one way while teaching in our predominantly black school, but when I met them in other places, they were white only.
At the University of Memphis, the white woman teacher called three of us "nigras" -- a word more polite than the N word. I stood and challenged her. I threatened to go to the dean (completely unsure the white male dean of history would support me). My A from her class was because I was smart and brave, not because she was fair or gave it to me or even wanted me to succeed emotionally or academically.
The constant bombardment from racism takes a toll on heart and spirit. My childhood traveling the world with my parents and then living in the South while my father was in Vietnam forged my exterior into steel, while I begged the good God to keep my heart tender. We were American citizens outside, but not inside the USA. Only on military bases was even the slightest dent put in white privilege.
My life as an African-American woman urged me to the Kohl Center to stand shivering, among mostly young white people, to hear hope in this country revived. In Wisconsin a white third-grader has reading scores second in the nation, but a black third-grader has reading scores 50th in the nation.
It reminds me of my son and his friends in third grade at Lincoln Elementary. Their bodies remained but their spirits flew out the window. Research says African-American children decide in the third grade to be successful in school or not, and it's not just those from poor households who stop learning because those from middle class and upper class homes are also not reaching their potential in Madison.
Statistics from third-grade reading scores are used to build more prisons. Wisconsin beats all 50 states, including the Deep South, in imprisoning young black men as a percentage of the African-American population. It is important that Barack Obama wins this state.
Barack Obama as president. A bit of hope began in my heart that this community organizer with his brilliant mind, this multiracial human being representing the new America, this international person with roots in Kenya, this politician with a proven record of integrity who is not a slave to the Washington political machine, this mature man who needs our wisdom and support, this Barack Obama will unite this country for our good here and in our shared world. I was at Barack Obama's Madison rally believing that I really am an American with rights and that other Americans who are people of color, who are white, male and female, young and old, rich and poor, believe in hope too.
Fabu is Madison's poet laureate and also a writer and educator. She writes a monthly column for The Capital Times.
I felt pressed by white people around me, and I felt fine. I saw African-Americans from a distance without panic.
Sounds normal to me.
I am an African-American woman. This fact alone speaks loudly in a country where I have always been boxed into race and gender as if both were evil....Whenever I enter a place, I look first to see who is like me. I scan a room for color because black means a modicum of safety for me while white is unknown. The unknown can be dangerous, and I never forget that ever!...Gender comforts me in outnumbered situations only if they are women of color. White women have betrayed us again and again historically
Sounds to me like she's in a box of her own choosing. Obama won't break her out of that, he will pander to it in a way different than Sharpton or Jackson.
I feel faint....
Someone get a medic...
I have been overcome... by the smell of mendacity...
It must be a really huge liar...
Wasn’t “Hope” John Edwards’ one-word slogan/philosophy once?
boy is she gonna be disappointed....
Oh, fer cryin’ outloud, this old song and dance coming from yet another black separatist proponent.
I bet President Obama and reparations would deliver a tub of hope to her, huh?
Kohl Center = KoolAid Center.
looneyism has no color
I was thinking that...kool aid...rev jones?
I fear a real smack up is heading their way.
Mmmm.. Kool Aid. Homer Simpson.
So, should the A have been for being black? Or because the teacher WANTED her to succeed? I would think that an A she earned would be a good thing. Who knew?
No stoooopid! Ther message is CHANGE (in your pocket)
Give her a break, she's only been poet laureate for a month.
I would have included a poem or two for the thread, but I couldn't find any in a quick search. Found a couple of articles noting that she hasn't been published much, but that's no bar to being a poet laureate, thus my suggestion that FR establish the position.
The only one I found is below. I like it for what it is. I'll resist commenting on mendacity, since you can't pluck the tenderest parts, separate from the stem, in relationships. And like Bill Clinton, Obama has a stem.
I want love
to be like a good pot of greens
pick the tenderest parts
separate from the hard stem
wash gently and thoroughly
removing every bit of dirt and grime
rinsing over and over and over
with the clear clean water of forgiveness
season with savory meat, herbs and spices
and then simmer, simmer, simmer.
I "hope" he is exposed for being another democRAT liar...
(please throw me a water bottle!)
—— Barack Obama as president. .... that I really am an American with rights and that other Americans who are people of color, who are white, male and female, young and old, rich and poor, believe in hope too. -——
I doubt that would do it. MLK couldn’t take away her racism. Colin Powell couldn’t do it. Condi couldn’t do it. As a Liberal, she will still find a way to be blaming her troubles on the White Man.
Ive been poet laureate here since 1999 when I wrote the following :
There is water where there once was land
Had I stood here these last 2 million years
I would have drowned
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I also won the pulitzer prize for that poem and I have not written anymore since
One question.
What’s a Fabu?
Hippy chicks. (Shakes head.)
Here’s how it will play out. African Amercans will assume that now our guy is in the house and will expect the CHANGE that Obama promised but it will be far more enourmous and rediculous than he could ever imagine. He will attempt to be fair and be labeled an uncle tom and so goes the first African American President. The change, hope and unity some will demand of Obama are not the same change, hope and unity for all.
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