We’re Awake; Are You?

Battle for black voters
Michelle Obama says they will ‘wake up and get it’
November 13, 2007
LYNN SWEET

WASHINGTON — With polls showing African Americans yet to give overwhelming support to White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), his wife, Michelle, said “black America will wake up and get it” in an interview with MSNBC.
In an interview clip running on Monday, Michelle Obama invoked the name of civil rights leaders Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when talking about African-American turnout, a crucial voting bloc if Obama is to win.
Michelle Obama said there was a “natural fear of possibility” and that there were times in her life when she was put down or told she’s “not ready.” There is “always that doubt in the minds of people of color,” she said. She said the African-American community has to shake off “that fear.”
“That’s what we want to show our community,” Michelle Obama said. “. . . We can do this too.”

So, as I could’ve guessed….it’s become my “duty” as an African American to vote for Barack Obama.

Sorry….but I thought one of the many rights that-since she brought them up-Dr. King and Rosa Parks-fought to get was the right to vote for whoever I choose?

And what, exactly, is it that I’m supposed to “wake up and get?” That if I don’t vote for Obama, all of a sudden, I’m either “not black” or “not black enough?” Cause if that’s the case, I’d much rather stay sleeping.

Unlike those who share Mrs. Obama’s view of African Americans, I-in Bone Crusher’s words-ain’t neva scared. I’ve never once thought that I couldn’t do something or be what I wanted to “just because” I’m black. There’s no fear here. If I set a goal or decide I want to do something, that’s all that needs to be said. Or, as the first principle of the Dillard Doctrine states, I’m not confined to the “black” box.

If we as African Americans really want to show that we can do anything that anyone else can do-and maybe do it better-we should just shut the hell up and do it. Let the actions speak for themselves.

I have an inside joke that I’m going to run for office (yes, you heard it here first!) in the future, and that my campaign slogan will be “Acknowledge the Possibility.” Maybe that’s what Mrs. Obama needs to do…acknowledge the possibility that African Americans can do/be whatever we want-without having to play another version of the race card. Or the possibility that a majority of us just may not want to vote for her husband. Maybe we just don’t like him.

Sorry, Michelle…black America’s awake, we’re not afraid, and we don’t have to follow another black man blindly. We judge people by the content of their character. Maybe you’d like to tell Dr. King to keep dreaming?

Hopefully, one day, you’ll wake up and get it.

HB2DF,

-D.