C. Dwayne West / MG Media
The Symbolic President
America’s racial history “still casts its long shadow upon us,” the nation’s first black president said Saturday as he stood collectively with civil rights activists in remembrance, whose beatings by police 50 years ago galvanized people against racial oppression.
On the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march that erupted in police violence on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge, President Barack Obama praised the leaders of a civil rights era that he was too young to know. He called them “warriors of justice” who pushed America closer to a more perfect union. “So much of our turbulent history – the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war, the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow, the death of four little girls in Birmingham, and the dream of a Baptist preacher – met on this bridge,” Barack expressed on warm and wonderful day. “It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills; a contest to determine the meaning of America. ”
Thousands packed the riverside town for commemorations of the march of March 7, 1965, in what became the first of three aiming to reach Montgomery, Alabama, to demand an end to discrimination against black voters and all such victims of segregation. Scenes of troopers beating marchers on the bridge shocked the nation.
Obama spoke immediately after Rep. John Lewis, a leader of the Selma march who was brought down by police brutality – his skull fractured – that day in 1965, which hastened the passing of the Voting Rights Act. “There’s still work left to be done,’ Lewis said. “Get out there and push and pull until we redeem the soul of America.”
As I watched clips of the president making statements about this time in history that occurred before I was even born, it warmed my heart, and it really hit home how the first black president is even more symbolic than ever before. And when I use the word 'symbolic', I truly believe that the symbolism of his presidency has done more to inspire than any policy or failed policies he has brought forth, pushed and passed on behalf of black people across this country.
Seeing him stand strong and forceful on this past Saturday. His image of a leader for the United States of America was mesmerizing. I was proud he was my CEO. This is when parents earn their keep. This is when, for a moment, each adult of young children take this historic moment and replace it with almost every other historic moment of the last 50 years. Parents must take this image of President Obama, a man who their children can see and hear, who's alive; and place it front and center within their homes where children are present. The photo of not only President Obama, but the entire first family should grace the walls, refrigerators and fireplace mantels in every black household. If you want your child to grow up to be 'somebody', then highlighting this moment in time is just as important as discussing college. Because if you present this historic moment correctly, your child will not only want to attend an ivy league institution, but they may also even dream of being president and CEO of their own company. To get any child of any race to think BIG and long term about their future is priceless. Especially if those underage children find motivation in symbolic images. That's why major corporations use celebrated athletes to sell gym shoes and other products. They know the symbolic image of being 'Like Mike' can't be denied in the wake of tens of millions of young kids having dreams of perfection. I had my daughter watching the speech this past Saturday. I don't know what she completely absorbed from President Obama's Works of Words, but I'm sure she'll remember his symbolic and powerful image translating through that TV sitting on my bed, while doing homework. Peace and One Love. |
