Last night, something historic happened. America elected its first black president, Barack Obama. I tried to be jubilant, but the benydryl won out, and I dropped into sleep right after his speech. My husband and brother celebrated for me by illegally shooting fireworks in front of our home!
I awoke this morning, however, joyous but not surprised. I knew it was going to happen. And how did I know? A surprising source: football. National Football League, and the way it deals with African American coaches should teach us a thing a two about why we can't let our guards down. We might have shouted last night, but today we must be sober. We stil have work to do, and here's how football teaches us this...
1. It took a long time for Black coaches to be considered as candidates for coaching jobs in the NFL. When they are picked, they are usually given the sorriest teams imaginable. They are put under more pressure to produce results, and given less time than their white counterparts. Remember how Tampa Bay did Tony Dungy?
Think of what it took for a Black candidate to be taken as a serious competitor for the office of president. We are fighting a senseless war of aggression in one country, and half-ass fighting where we are needed most. We have lost our sense of moral and intellectual integrity and our perception as a beacon of hope. Because of greed and racism, the housing market has gone down, and caused a global financial crises. The stock market has crashed and crashed again. WE are experiencing our own depression. Education is in a standstill. America lags behind even some third-world countries in educational funding. Crime is sky-rocketing. In short, this country is a mess. This country had to be tore up from the ground up for a Black man to be considered for presidency. At this point, I think people would have accepted a dog over another Republican, if that dog were white. Even with all of this going on, Obama had a tough fight because of his skin color. Which brings me to my next point...
2. America's team, the Dallas Cowboys, has never had a Black coach, and Jerry Jones won't even think of interviewing one for the job. He wants that winning team, and doesn't think it's a shame that his stubborness is costing him good will in the eyes of his fans and colleagues. Think of the Dallas Cowboys as the South. Do you all realize that the South is one of the poorest regions in the nation, and always votes Republican? With the exception of Virginia and Florida, Obama did not carry any Southern states. So, we can't sit back and relax. Normally, everybody gets to dump on Mississippi, however, this election has proved that the whole South is content to remain at the back of the bus. The South has taken her stand yet again, and like Jerry Jones, is content to accept losing and/or dying over positive change with an African American leader.
3. And then there are teams that have liberal and empathetic coaches, and players shoot themselves in the foot. These teams, like the Bears, and the Bengals, are unruly and undisciplined. They stay in trouble both on the field, and off the field. It is as if their money and superstar status have given them a license to act a damn fool, and piss away a magnificent opportunity to just play football, rather than hit the grind like the rest of us. These men, drunk on the wine of the world, screw up their marriages, their jobs, and their families because they are not mature enough or disciplined enough to handle the enormous responsibilities that come with success. Don't laugh at Michael Vick, one only needs to pay attention to the behavior of some urban African American populations to understand his behaviour. Instead of taking advantage of the tremendouse educational opportunities given us by our ancestors who died in the Civil Rights Movement, and before then, we became satisfied raising our families on trinkets, baptizing them in materialism, and teaching them to accept mediocrity. After the Civil Rights Movement, many Baby Boomer African Americans dropped the ball and fumbled it. They decided that being able to buy more material goods was more important than teaching our current generation our history. Now, it is coming to fruition. We have more Black men in jail than college. We have Black women having a bunch of children by different men so that they can receive more food stamps and other benefits. We have a generation whose only knowledge of Black history consists of a preacher from Georgia and woman whose feet were tired....Period. We are lost...almost.
But Obama gives us hope. And this time, we cannot afford to fumble the ball to the likes of BET and other psychologically damaging images of ourselves. We must look to ourselves and take responsibility for ourselves.
1. Let us reembrace Jessie Jackson. People make mistakes. WE need to stop putting our leaders upon a pedestal, thereby alleviating ourselves of any responsibilities for our own personal actions. Jessie did wrong, but he is our brother, and our father. We need to show him love. We do wrong, too. It's just that his wrongs are public and ours are private. We need to stop putting everything on the preachers' shoulders, and read and study for ourselves.
2. Let us always lift up President Obama with our prayers. Yes, he will be tested. But don't give in to typical Negro apathy, "I told ya'll he wasn't gone do nothing."
3. Let us be parents again, and not friends. Let us teach our children our history. Let us stop putting in ourselves into a system of volunteer slavery that tells you that a maxed out credit card at an interest rate of 29.9% is worth a new outfit for church, and passing on the curse of financial irresponsibility to our children. We don't have to be dressed to be blessed.
4. Let us look past the surface of things. Let us start to address some things that have been quiet as kept for far too long. Let us stop pretending that the young folk are to blame for so much silliness. We learned it from somewhere.
While we lift up Barack in our prayers, let us pull ourselves up by the emotional bootstraps. Mr. Obama once said that his favorite writer is Toni Morrison. I can see that. I can see that because in her books, she lets you feel the power of the white supremacy, but does not concern herself with it. Instead, she holds the Black community responsible for what happens to its weakest individuals. When we don't guide our children, love our neighbors, address our painful pasts, or pray for one another, disaster usually happens to somebody who felt like their own people did not love or support them. By the time the community realizes what is has done or failed to do, it is often much, much too late. And in her narratives, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
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