I mean really who'd ah thunk it?!? And now, who is still not willing to accept what was not supposed to be possible in our lifetime? We have a President-elect who is not, officially, only of European descent. Congratulations to Barack Hussein Obama II. Man just saying his name brings an odd tingling sensation of change. Congratulations America. I can say that the "Great Experiment" may be succeeding. Now I can see the expansion of Possibilities. The Paradigm has shifted. The "White Monolith" has deconstructed itself. Now is the time for everybody else to take Responsibility for all the things thought improbable and hammer the world with new vision.
Terrible as it seems I was very skeptical at the beginning of the Democratic Primary. Who was this cat? He didn't have a Civil Rights lineage. He wasn't connected to the many "Black" institutions and power bases. I didn't believe Barack was a viable candidate for these reasons. Even though i constantly complained about "Black Leaders" and what seemed to be reactive politics and policies. Still to quote Kanye, " Everything I'm not made me everything I am." I learned a lesson in faith. Living in this virulent Red State. Searching for meaning in the this powerfully conflicted "cradle of the confederacy" and "birthplace of the civil rights." Employed at one of the oldest black institutions of higher education. Teaching in an art department woefully detached from its cultural heritage and social imperative. I lost faith in things coming out...RIGHT. Well I joyously stand corrected and embrace my role in this new world order.
As an artist my work has been about seeing, studying, mimicking, creating and communicating. Through much of my creative experience and education I banged my head attempting to gain acceptance an excluding monolith and searching for allies in an emerging generation addled by self importance, selfishness, mediocrity and fear. See but that was just misdirection and misunderstanding and projecting. I'm done with that shit.
This is America where dream and drive creates success.
This is America where perseverance and faith can create equality.
America has a new national anthem as far as I'm concerned. And it made me cry when it first really caught my attention during the climactic scenes of Spike Lee's phenomenal X. When i first heard it smacked of a dream deferred. It echoed the lament of Ralph Ellison's nightmare of The Invisible Man. But then i listened close, cause it always contained hope. So when the votes came in far earlier than i expected(my wife had to wake me up) and the reporters and pundits and critics and citizens embrace it, the words ran through my head with true meaning"
"Been a long long time coming but I know a CHANGE is gonna COME. Oh yes it will."
I cried again and i thanked Sam Cooke for his delivery and I smiled.
That CHANGE has come. Oh yes it has.
My Momma said to me early in this year's political game, "change doesn't come when you're ready, it comes when its necessary."
America GET DOWN OR LAY DOWN.
