No News Flash: Legalized Segregation is Over (Racism is Not).

Observations on the language of race at the inauguration of America's first Black President.
by Damali Ayo

First off, let me state for the record, I am thrilled that Barack Obama has started his tenure as President of the United States. It was not the inauguration I most anticipated since November 4th but his initiating the change that this country needs and that his vision holds dear. Wednesday was the day that brought me the most thrill as I realized that I would see a true leader and an incredible role model for all citizens, who shares the vision of our Founding Fathers for this country take the reins and lead us back onto a course of true American values that we have long strayed from- not only during the Bush years, but for many years before that.

But the tone of the inauguration struck me repeatedly as awkwardly out of touch with reality. It was strange to me that reporter after reporter, citizen after citizen and finally the president himself evoked memories of lunch counter segregation as the sign that we as a country have progressed beyond the 'evil trappings' of racism to the dawn of a new day where a man of color can be our leader.

It's an odd image to evoke. They all might as well have said "150 years ago we were in chains." But of course this image was evoked as well, though not as frequently.

The images of racism that were not evoked, and in fact have been patently omitted from the story of our first Black President are the very real examples of racism that not only continues to exist in our culture but that surely plagued Obama in every step of his rise to this high office. We've heard little discussion of the racism that Obama's mother was so certain he would face in school that she drilled him in *English* lessons every morning. We have not heard the stories of Obama being tokenized by his teachers and peers. We have not heard the stories of his fighting for acceptance among his black colleagues. We've heard very little of how he developed his understanding that people of color need to work together on our collective struggle. No one has mentioned that Barack Obama was at Harvard during one of the school's most radical fights for race and gender equality, and that he was a prominent speaker in that movement. No one has mentioned the afro he sported during that time, when trust me, afros were not in style but rather a statement of a political agenda. We have not talked in depth about the anti-racist and anti-poverty struggles he worked on for most of his professional career. We gloss over those moments with the confusing phrase "he spent many years as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago" a euphemism for "Obama dedicated every day of his work and personal life to fighting racial and economic inequality." We talk about his work in Chicago as if it were the choice of a man of middle-class luxury rather than the inner burning passion of a person who has faced racism throughout his entire American experience.

We cannot bring up these images for many reasons- not the least of which is that our country is terrified of people who "fight" racism, poverty and injustice, witness the strangle-hold we have on Martin Luther King Jr, while we relegate the rest of the black activists during MLK's time to an outcast 'radical' camp.

We also cannot bring up these images because if we do we cannot get the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from saying that the American experience of racism for people of color is over.

I would have loved to hear Obama say "this is an incredible moment because only a few years ago, I went to a school where they would barely allow people of color to hold a job, and now I hold this highest office." or "I've been fighting my whole life to help black people get food, shelter, and just treatment at work, and now I am in the position to ensure that food, shelter and just treatment is given to all American citizens." These truths of our countries racism are much more relevant in a contemporary sense because they are the struggles that the current generation has faced and that we continue to face. But it seemed the consensus among the crowd, reporters and the President himself that this is too difficult for us to admit.

It is often what is not said that tells us the truth of a situation. So I take the omission as an admission- the evoking of something so clearly in our distant past and ignoring that which is our present shows that we still have decades of racism that is still alive in our culture.

PEACE.LOVE.HAPPINESS