Monday, November 10, 2008

It's finally hit Ta-Nehisi...

It took you long, my man, but at least it is finally sunk in:

I saw a lot of tears election night. I'm a weird cat, emotions burn slow in me. I didn't get 9/11, emotionally, until months later when I started reading the individual stories. I think I was most sad, like a year or two after the towers fell. Ditto for our First Black President. I felt good Election Night, but mostly numb. But all this week small things have been pointing me to the importance of this moment.

I saw this picture over at TPM. I don't think a lot of folks understand how hard black people take their portrayal in mainstream media. We probably spend more time bemoaning the latest R. Kelley affair, than bemoaning racism. America
is like the NFL--without the salary cap. And some days to be black, is to be a Detroit Lion. Before they fired Matt Millen. And then something like this happens, and after years of feeling ashamed you look up and you see what you represent on your best days, what you hope your fam represents--vision, courage, competition, confidence--is represented at the highest levels of this country. You wake up and realize that your best face, is the face of the country, is the face of the world.

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