If Obama Was White
Not even the two wars fought by the (United Nations?) in Afghanistan and
in Iraq in recent times generated much noise and tension all over the
world as the US Democrats elections ongoing in which an American
senator, Barack Obama is also a contender.
As the elections are being conducted in the US, the echoes of it are
deafening the ear, especially in Africa, because Obama is Black. The
media is awash with such questions, “Obama, the first Black president of
America?” “Obama, Martin Luther King Jr. ‘dream’ come true?” and all
that Obama, Obama.
While questions and accolades about/to Obama are posited on the pages of
the newspapers, I have not been left without sadness and a feeling of
disdain running through my nerves on why, if not the whole world, are
envisaging a Black becoming a US president as a miracle. My questions
are: would the world collapse if a Black becomes the US president in
November this year, and that is Obama, if he wins the Democrats
primaries and the general election? Is it not a Black man or woman’s
fundamental right to contest in a US elections, as a citizen, without
the pique gesture of BLACK attached to the aspirant? Is it not the
Blacks’ fundamental right to contest an election in the US, a country
their forefathers sprinkled their blood for the emancipation of human
rights without any tone of pity attached?
I am not understanding this ovation, this much talks about Obama: is he
being pitied, or is the ongoing elections seen as his privilege? The
people’s cheers are dicey. One, he is an American; and two, but a Black.
But perhaps the intelligent Obama was white, but a buffoon, a drunk, and
all that, I think the world would not have been engulfed with these
nefarious disturbances, as being experienced or perceieved in many
quarters. In my humble opinion, people should now see Obama as an
American citizen, not as (The first Black president of the US?). Even,
it is an insult calling the Black, people of ‘colour’. Who in this world
does not have colour? If that were the case!
(The first Black president of the US?) question should be stopped; the
question always sends a particular signal to my mind that breaks my
spine, reminding me of the circumstances that culminated to the
assassination of the foremost orator, human rights activist, (Dr.)
Martin Luther King Jr.
In this elections, I quite believe that only ‘thank you’ would be an
under-congratulatory message that the US would receive from all over the
world, if Obama wins or loses, but in a free and fair elections.
By Odimegwu Onwumere
Odimegwu Onwumere is a vibrant prolific author and poet, writes from
Oyigbo, Rivers State, Nigeria.
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