No longer a white man's world

The Great White Father is no longer in Washington.
As of now, there is no Great White Father, as the presidents of the early United States became known to the Indians (or Native Americans as they are now called). Today a black man, the son of an immigrant from Kenya, is the leader of the free world.
This is the time that we’ve always been told will come, but never expected to see. This is a time of change. I have to ask myself, can I be a part of that change? Can I do my part to make this new world order a better place?
My whole life up until now I have lived with the smug confidence of a white man in a white man’s world. I’ve always believed in equality and the notion that anyone, regardless of their race or gender, could become president. I just never believed it would happen – yet it has.
This week was a first for me. I covered the Martin Luther King festivities on Monday and then went to Prairie View A&M University on Tuesday to cover President Obama’s inauguration.
What I witnessed really opened my eyes. I got to see first-hand what Obama’s ascension to the presidency means to people of color, especially blacks.
I really didn’t know what to expect being a white man entering the world of African-Americans. I was nervous to be sure, but experience taught me to be on guard. My only experience as a minority came back in the early 1990s when I was living in Elizabeth City, N.C. At that time and in that place, racism was rampant on both sides.
I know of blacks who hated all whites with a passion. I also know of whites who felt the same way about blacks. Many were the times that I was called either a racist by blacks or an N-word-lover by whites. I guess that meant I was doing something right to be branded that way by both sides.
I’ve always tried very hard to be respectful of all people regardless of their race or gender. I believe and live by the Golden Rule. But as I’ve said, I’ve always had the perspective of being in the white male majority. I don’t have that luxury anymore.
In covering the local events this week I got to see in the faces and hear in the voices what it means to blacks to have one of their own in the highest office in the land. I say “their own” for lack of a better word. Obama is an American, like me. Yet he is not like me. He is part of a minority race, a group of people that “my people” – whites – have historically looked down upon and treated as second-class citizens.
I hope that this will be the beginning of the end of the “Us and Them” mentality in this country. I hope that the next time a black person is elected president that we do not have to celebrate the occasion with this historical perspective of race, but rather celebrate the accomplishments of the man – or woman.
As I listened to Obama’s speech, I could feel his desire for unity in this country. I’ve always wanted unity, but always felt it should be the minorities unifying with the majority. Can we do it the other way around? We’ll see.
Obama issued a challenge for people to perform acts of service. That has been a hallmark of my life and will continue to be. I think working together toward a common good is what makes us stronger and more unified. Obama knows this and uses this action wisely.
One of the things that struck me this week was how often Obama was looked at as the fulfillment of the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. Obama is not the fulfillment of the dream. He represents the promise of the dream.
Realization of the dream will come in the next four years as we learn whether our faith in him is justified. Obama’s rise to the presidency is not the achievement of the dream but his positioning himself to accomplish that goal.
What Obama does in the next four years – what we do together as a nation under the leadership of a black man – will determine if the dream has truly been realized.
Still, I can’t help but look back on the events of this week and try to put myself into the shoes of a people who have been a downtrodden and second-class citizenry for centuries to try and figure out how they feel about Obama becoming president.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t figure out how Native Americans must be viewing these current events.
The Great White Father is gone indeed.