A Historic Event

The Inauguration of Barack Obama has been repeatedly referred to as a "historic event." It most certainly is. He will be the first black president in the history of the United States. But that would mean nothing without context. Too often the true significance of this achievement is left implicit.

It is important not merely because black people were enslaved. It is because the descendents of slave masters, who on the whole have never realized the legacy of that egregiously dehumanizing system, helped to elect a black man the leader of the country. Forty years ago, white mobs lynched black men, and, in the eyes of the country, there was no crime committed. Today, innocent black men are jailed and those who perpetrate crimes against black victims walk free. This is the context in which a black man was elected to the nation's highest office.

Black and white children are fed a few symbolic doses of the achievements of their black co-nationalists. We don't know black history and thus, don't know American history. We are not able to learn the lessons that history provides. So, white people fear black people and black people distrust white people. This social and spiritual segregation is found on an every day level. This is the context in which a black man was elected to the nation's highest office.

In a country so antagonistic towards asking the profound questions that racism requires, a black man was elected to the nation's highest office. It is historic, not only because it is a symbol of black progress and the ability of a people to overcome, but because of the obstacles placed in the way by white people throughout the history of the United States. It is remarkable that a black man, in a nation that has used every form of violence against black people, has ascended to the presidency.