Barack Obama’s Face
Oct 25th, 2008 | By N'Mama | Category: On My MindI am a woman of too many blogs, but this was too important not to get on “paper” tonight. My son is in kindergarten this year, and I am continually fascinated at how much he learns each day and how articulate he can be in expressing himself. Sometimes he makes me turn my head so fast at what he’s saying that I should be wearing a neck brace. This post may not be much, and may need polishing, but I wanted to get this out right NOW!
Now, I’m not one to get into politics and to rant and rave about which candidate is better and who’s not this and who is that. Although I am a bit right of center rather than left (as you can probably tell from my blog) to me, it’s all about the issues rather than the partisan politics.
My son’s school held a mock election the other day. Barack Obama won, 200-18 votes. I asked my young one why he voted for Barack Obama and he told me simply, “Because he has a cool name.” I thought that was the funniest thing I’d ever heard. (Maybe we should all vote like that and see what happens).
Tonight, as he was undressing for bed, he suddenly said to me “Barack Obama has a brown face.” What? I said….and he repeated for me “Barack Obama has a brown face…..like mine.” I sat back in my chair, put my pen down and said to him, “That’s right, he does.” Inside I was thinking what an impact this presidential race has on the young children. My son now can truly believe that a man with a brown face like his can run for PRESIDENT! It does not matter about the politics, who’s right, or who’s wrong, it’s about the possibilities that Barack Obama presents to black children of America, and especially to my young black male.
Staggering, isn’t it?
My daughter loves Obama, she is 9 and I don’t think it is because of me, she is drawn to him. I set up a photo gallery at http://obamagallery.com.
It is amazing watching CHANGE in the eyes of the next generation.
I read an article that spoke about this very issue. Unfortunately I can’t remember where I read it - maybe Essence. But it noted the increase in grades among black boys in a school in Chicago that began after Obama began campaigning for the Presidential race. Apparently the boys were inspired by his example and realized by applying themselves they could accomplish anything.
My 4 year old little girl is absolutely in awe of Obama. We do try to talk to her about current events/issues as much as possible without overloading her or freaking her out. She knows what it is to vote because she has gone into the booth with either me or daddy since she was 7 months old.
She has actually stayed awake and watched a couple of debates and whenever Obama spoke, she would start cheering. There is something about him that magnetizes all types of people, but it also doesn’t hurt that he is tall, lean and brown like all the men in her life.
That is a powerful statement from your son to say that Barack has a brown face like him! He has a positive role model to look up to.Thank you for sharing your story with us!