Those are words I'll never forget my father saying. One, because I had a hard time comprehending why that made any difference and two because I had never heard him say such a thing.
It was 1972, I was an 11 year old white Mormon boy, fat little kid, living in northern Utah and I was so excited about Shirley Chisholm becoming president! Don't know why, I just liked her and would get really excited when the rare mention of her campaign would be on the news.
His statement was a marker in my life when I really came into political awareness. My father was not racist by any means, in fact I would say for the time and place he was pretty liberal. He was careful never to use epithets or tell "jokes" but this conventional wisdom was the prevailing sentiment of the times, especially where I grew up, and when I said something about Shirley becoming President he just stated...
"She can never be President because she is black."
Those words are the first that went through my head today as it became apparent that Barack Obama would be our nominee for President of the United States of America, then I took a moment and said a little prayer to thank her for her courage, I also might have mentioned to my dad he was kinda wrong.
Shirley Chisholm was the first African American to campaign for the U.S. presidency in a major political party. There is a wonderful documentary about her run that I would encourage all to see. It is called "Unbought and Unbossed" and was on Frontline.
I think of how her seemingly quixotic campaign planted seeds in young minds, sparked the imaginations of future voters, inspired many to consider public service despite their gender, heritage or race and asked many to question notions like my fathers.
...and my how those seeds have grown and matured,
This year, the Democratic party chose between two amazing candidates. A gifted white woman, Hillary Clinton and a powerful black man, Barack Obama and this nation will will be forever changed for the positive because of it. As I am shedding these joyful tears and readying myself for a tough fall campaign, I wanted to just take a moment to honor not Just Congresswoman Chisholm but the many and varied African American Sheros and Heros who planted seeds despite the odds to change perceptions and get us to where we are today.
Today I got all weepy and teary...actually I think my inner 11 year old got weepy and teary. Because in my life this conventional wisdom has been challenged and changed, and we all got to be a tiny little part of that.