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Should I Leave the Country Because of the Election
No, my ancestors died building the country.
I stood in the voting booth and gazed at my ballot for the 2008 presidential election. There was a black man’s name before me. A black man was nominated for president on a major party ticket. That was Barack Obama. He was a junior senator from Illinois who stormed the political landscape. He beat out the establishment candidate. Hillary Clinton.
I marked his name proudly for Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisolm—two black people who tried and failed. My back, like many African Americans, was straighter that day. My gait possessed a bit more swagger because I marked a black person’s name for the first time.
I was proud. I shed tears when he won and walked out onto that Chicago stage with his very black family.
I saw Jessie and Oprah cry for all the ancestors who took the lash, noose, and bullet for this moment.
I thought America had changed and was on the verge of becoming less racist, sexist, homophonic, and xenophobic. If you can elevate a man with an African name to the highest office, we can overcome our differences.
However, when 2016 came around, Trump rose. He was an upstart and nonestablishment political candidate, but who would vote for him?
