My epiphany...
Right now there are many people saying, “Never in my life did I ever expect to see a black man nominated for President of the United States.” I am feeling the same thing, but with a very profound sense of personal pride.
It wasn’t until tonight; while listening to Barack Obama speak in Denver, that I suddenly understood why I have been given to so many emotions when I listen to him speak. I realized it was because of the improbability of his story, improbable like so many of us who come from mixed and diverse ancestry. When I think about the fear and shame that my grandfather had carried with him about whom and where he was from, this is what has been bringing me to tears.
My grandfather, Bernard Washington, died of prostate cancer a month before I was born. As a child when I asked about him, I was told that he was an orphan from Washington, D.C. Later when I reached adulthood, and planned to be married, I was told the real story. He was born to a black family, and while serving in the army during World War I found he could pass as white. Something that now seems weird, indeed very sad, but under the circumstances of the early 20th century was far more common than I knew.
As a gay man, I can certainly understand the fear, and self loathing that people have about who they really are, especially after years of having to pretend you aren’t that person in a hostile world. He suffered so much self-hatred that his own children never learned about his life as a child, or about his side of the family. My Washingtons of D.C. are lost to me, because of racism.
So it is that I understand to some extent what it must have been like to hide from others the truth about who you really are. I understand the pressures of hiding and trying to conform to a hostile society. I decided years ago, that in his memory I would never ever live in any closet, and because he couldn’t, and later my family wouldn't, I would work for social justice.
Tonight watching the democratic party nominate a candidate of mixed race for the presidency, someone very much like my grandfather, I am in awe.
So, no matter if Obama wins or not, this is a new day for all of us. He said it wasn’t about him, he is right; it IS about us.
see: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/472
It wasn’t until tonight; while listening to Barack Obama speak in Denver, that I suddenly understood why I have been given to so many emotions when I listen to him speak. I realized it was because of the improbability of his story, improbable like so many of us who come from mixed and diverse ancestry. When I think about the fear and shame that my grandfather had carried with him about whom and where he was from, this is what has been bringing me to tears.
My grandfather, Bernard Washington, died of prostate cancer a month before I was born. As a child when I asked about him, I was told that he was an orphan from Washington, D.C. Later when I reached adulthood, and planned to be married, I was told the real story. He was born to a black family, and while serving in the army during World War I found he could pass as white. Something that now seems weird, indeed very sad, but under the circumstances of the early 20th century was far more common than I knew.
As a gay man, I can certainly understand the fear, and self loathing that people have about who they really are, especially after years of having to pretend you aren’t that person in a hostile world. He suffered so much self-hatred that his own children never learned about his life as a child, or about his side of the family. My Washingtons of D.C. are lost to me, because of racism.
So it is that I understand to some extent what it must have been like to hide from others the truth about who you really are. I understand the pressures of hiding and trying to conform to a hostile society. I decided years ago, that in his memory I would never ever live in any closet, and because he couldn’t, and later my family wouldn't, I would work for social justice.
Tonight watching the democratic party nominate a candidate of mixed race for the presidency, someone very much like my grandfather, I am in awe.
So, no matter if Obama wins or not, this is a new day for all of us. He said it wasn’t about him, he is right; it IS about us.
see: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/472
Comments