. . .our fingerprints are everywhere
on you america, our fingerprints are
everywhere, Cesaire told you
that our family strewn around the world
has made more parts of that world
blue and funky, cooler, flashier, hotter
afro-cuban james brownier
In the Tradition, Amiri Baraka
Yesterday I took a major step toward how I want to live in the world, how I want the world to the US and how I want the world to be.
I have a great interest in international affairs. My work as college professor includes considerations and examinations of the lives and history of people of African descent. I have had the opportunity to travel across the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Africa. I have lived overseas and I understand what it means to see this country through the eyes of another. Especially peoples of color.
The views of the United States held by the continental Africans peoples of the African Diaspora largely relies on cultural representations (movies, television, music). The faces of African Americans more often than not represent the United States to populations across the planet. It is through Afri-US music, movies, sports and politics that the best and worst of the US is exposed. I remember having arguments with a Senegalese friend over the revolutionary potential of Tupac Shakur. His belief was that Tupac's grassroots credibility and theoretical insight could merge the class divides within the African American freedom struggle. Late one night in Accra, a yound man who loved Ice Cube's music spoke of how he wished Ghanaians could have guns and sparked a two hour debate about gun control. Two young Ethiopian students saw freedom in the music of Reggae and nervously whispered their identification as Rastafarians. Post Martin Luther King every thing is rosy for Black Americans. As a graduate student in Ghana said to me,
"American, land of the free, home of the brave. You had the Civil Rights movement. What's the problem?"
I replied, "You had colonialiam, now you have neo-colonialism, right?"
"Yes."
"Same shit, different name."
Black America to a large degree is America for many in the African world. Our athletes, entertainers, writers and now our politicans speak to all that the US is capable of. The phenonmenon of Barack Obama's candidacy, in the eyes of many Africans, returns the US and specifically its citizens of African descent, to its role of paragon of progressive movement. In the past the faces of America embodied by Black people were Jackie Robinson, Paul Robeson, Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali. These were faces and voices who linked themselves to the struggles of the poor and downtrodden. More recent faces have been the faces of war, imperialism and mendacity.
These newer faces and the agendas they represent have broken faith with the past and have cast into doubt African America's role as the moral center of US civilzation. Barack Obama's candidacy and (hopeful nomination and election) for POTUS will go along way toward restoribng that faith. However, it is not enough. Considering the damage done to the image of the US by George W. Bush's presidency, an army must join cause in the transformation of what this country is, what it stands for and what it is seen to be. The burdens of America cannot be withstood by one person. An important feature of democracy is that not only do citizens have the right to vote but they have the privilege of being responsible for their government and its policies.
So in anticipation of a Barack Obama presidency, yesterday I took the Foreign Service Officer's Test. Because like Michelle ObamaI am proud of my country. I had thought about taking the exam since 2001 when I met several Foreign Service Officers in Uganda. But I could not in good conscience represent the policies of George W. Bush. Now I have a pride in the possibilities of this country. In the demeanor and statements and aticulated beliefs of Sen. Barack Obama I want to be a part of the reconstruction of the United States on the world stage. I want my face to be one of the thousands of American faces that will greet nations across the world as representatives of the US people. I want my face to be one of the millions of American faces that will look out onto the 21st world. I want my face and beliefs to be part of the change I desire.