
As a Black man just entering his 40’s, I freely admit that
there was a time when I believed certain things would not be achievable in my
lifetime. I thought that we may
eventually see a Black Secretary of State or Attorney General, but I never thought
that I would see a Black President or Vice President in my lifetime. I realize that this sounds funny to say in
2016, but that was my reality. Even with
the impact that Jesse Jackson had in the 1984 and 1988 Democratic Primaries,
and the attention to our issues those campaigns ushered in, still…in the back
of my mind I couldn’t see it. My basis
for feeling this way was the history I had heard about and what I had
seen. I was born after the Civil Rights
Movement, but right in the middle of busing and changing community
demographics. I was in grade school by
the time crack was introduced in our neighborhoods and began to dismantle
family structure in a major way. By the
time I was teenager, I knew I was an endangered species with a life expectancy
of 21, depending on my decisions or by my living environment. Fortunately for me, my living situation was
stable and supportive by two parents who pushed their kids to excel and to get
an education. I also knew that everyone
didn’t have that benefit.
So I became jaded. I
still am to an extent. As a fairly
militant college student, I buried myself in all of the positives of my
culture. I had Hip Hop music that
encouraged me to stay in school and flaunted Historically Black Colleges and
Universities. We had television shows
that showed normal Black families and talked about being positive and striving
to be anything you wanted to be…..including President of the United
States. I soaked all of that in, but
even with all that ammunition, I never had it in my mind that I would see a
Black President in my lifetime. Maybe we
would see a woman. That would have still
been a victory, but no one from African descent.
Fast forward eleven years to Election Night 2008. I was thirty-three with three year old and 7
month-old daughters. As I watched the
results come in, I still didn’t want to believe what I was seeing. Even though Barack Obama appeared to have a
commanding lead over John McCain…that jadedness, that feeling that life
experience had given me still had me questioning to the very end. “Something could still happen.” “They’re not
going to let him have this.” After the
commentators called the contest, my wife turned to me with tears in her eyes
and said “He won!” I remember standing
in the middle of my living room with my hands on my head…mouth open…trying to
reconcile what just happened. What I
believed would never happen in my lifetime had just taken place. I walked up the steps and went into the
rooms of my two angels as they slept and stared at them. Their world would be so different than
mine. Their experience would be so much
richer and would be absolutely boundless.
Whatever your opinion is of President Obama’s time in
office, the impact of his ascension to the highest office of the land cannot be
measured. Removing politics from the
equation, the Obama presidency has taken the limits off of what little Black
boys and girls can accomplish in the country and the world. Recently, Hillary Clinton became the first
woman to receive a Presidential nomination from a major party. Ninety-six years after women secured the
right to vote, there is a chance that a woman might lead the country. Whether she wins the election or not, every
little girl that wants to dream about being President now knows that it’s at
least, possible.
I grew up not believing that I would see a Black
President. My children have only known
of a Black President during their lifetime.
Now as females, they could see a woman take that office next. Regardless if you’re a Republican or
Democrat, that is a powerful thing to imagine.
My girls won’t know any barriers to their careers and lives. In a country that has not always been open
and accessible to minorities and women, there are no strikes against them that
they can’t conquer. No reason to be
jaded about their prospects. How
incredible is that?
Their perspective is light years away from where mine was
when I was their age. I am very grateful
for that.
Ahmad Ward is Vice President of Education and Exhibitions at BCRI