My President is Black

So instead of filling people’s newsfeeds on fb I am choosing to go low key this year. We all know who I am voting for and while it is because I’m black, it’s because I believe that this man Barrack is the man who should be in charge of our country. I believe in him, I never doubted him when others said he wasn’t keeping his promises. I love this man, and I don’t know him, I love the way he talks, I love his relationship with his wife, I love how he treats his daughters. I love him because he is our president. And by ours I mean us as displaced Africans. He is ours; it doesn’t matter if his skin is light, if he wasn’t raised around us. He knows who he is, and I’m sure many a republican has called him all the names I have been called in my life.

I do not consider myself an American, although I am happy to have the right to vote, and to have the rights that we are said to have. I know that this is not my country and that my people came here without their own consent. That said this election is the most important in my life. This election is a decision that our nation has to make. What rides on this to me is my children’s future. Not only my children’s future but my friends children, the families I work with, their education system.

I write this as a mother of a child who was able to go to school because of government subsidies that helped us to be able to pay for his early childhood education. I write this as a mother whose daughter receives WIC and if she didn’t we would not be able to afford her prescription formula, because she has allergies that we cannot afford. It is not that we are not hard workers; my husband works more than he is home. I work and go to school to get my second and third degree so we can make more money and not have to ask for any help. There have been moments in my son’s life where he didn’t have any insurance; since we have had him on child health plus another government funded program he has never missed an appointment.

How can anyone, want someone who has such disregard for families, women, minorities and their needs to run this nation. Does Romney know that it is a stated fact that we as black families make less money than anyone else in this country? No he thinks like most rich white people that we are lazy and wait for handouts. It’s been stated. I go to school with financial aid, and I am proud to be in school, to be working hard to give my children the same opportunities that I had. I want my son to see me and be inspired. His mom could work, take care of home and take 15 credits a semester. I want to be their hero.

Is it our fault that my pay rate is way less than my white counter parts? That society steers us to only be able to live in certain areas, and if we don’t we will be made to feel so uncomfortable that we would end up moving? I want to know what else Romney wants me to do. I know I am not the only parent who has these hard ships. I speak to people like myself on an everyday basis.

So when I’m asked why I want Obama to win and will be heartbroken if he doesn’t these are some of my reasons. I feel proud when my son says he wants to be like this man who likes him on the television. I cried with tears of joy when I saw him walk across the stage during his inauguration. It is not all about race, but it is uplifting to see someone who looks like me. As young Jeezy said “My president is black”, and he deserves 4 more years.