President Obama: Positives Beyond Presidency

The Caribbean Is One Nation.
                                                     President Obama: Positives Beyond Presidency   

President Barack Obama’s recent visit to the region was as expected, a diplomatic goodbye to the region that he has skillfully ignored during his presidency. We never expected his presidency to be of any significant benefit to the region and therefore we cannot even pretend that we are disappointed.

Like most Black people worldwide, Afro Caribbean people were understandably buoyant when he became president; after all, we share a common historical path with our Afro American brothers and sisters. We cannot deny that his victory was one for all those glorious freedom fighters against racism and the myriad inequalities that exist in the USA and throughout the world. However, in all fairness to President Obama, he never promoted himself as a Martin Luther King Junior or a Malcolm X. He contested office as a democrat politician, who was and remains, instep with most of those who have held, what is considered to the most powerful position in the world.

However, we must be fair to him again and suggest that his presidency had direct psychological benefits for our Afro American comrades because it demonstrated that with tenacity and the will to overcome obstacles, many of the struggles they continue to face and many of the evils, such as police brutality and murder of Afro American men, can and must be eliminated. Many Afro American brothers have witnessed a very committed family man in the White house and that would have inspired many to be better men. Many Afro American sisters will obviously realize and be inspired by first lady Michelle Obama, and that will no doubt assist in burying many of the negative images that others have of them and they of themselves. These positives cannot be seriously ignored and the Obama presidency must be given credit where it is due.

We also cannot ignore the positive effects that the two wonderful young daughters of the Obama’s would have had on young Afro children throughout the world. Their presence in the white house and the positive images of them growing up in such elite circumstance cannot be overlooked.

Those who only swim in intellectual/academic  waters  may not comprehend the import of our assessment at this stage but in a very real way the presidency of Barack Obama , has  kept “hope alive” for the Afro American community and the residual effects will be important for decades. There are Afro Americans, as well as Afro Caribbean brothers and sisters, who achieve great goals at the personal level, which transcend politics and economics. We think of Barack Obama the president and we think of Richard Williams, the father of Serena and Venus Williams. We also think of Sir Garry Sobers. Those who attempt to ignore what they really mean to the Afro American or the Afro Caribbean should be forgiven for what we hope, is nothing more than an unfortunate misunderstanding of historical lessons.