Obama: No, You Shouldn't!

A lot of stuff has been written and said about the current effort by Senator Barak Obama to occupy the White House after George W. Bush vacates the official residence of the president of the US.

I take a different view from a lot of my friends, black, white, blue, brown, red or whatever colour. I am a blackman through and through. But, while I would rejoice if Obama wins the Democratic nomination and the November elections into the White House, I think however that such a "success" would not serve the interest of the black race positively.

Let me put forward my prognosis:

For quite a long time now, in fact, beginning from the time of Dr Martin Luther King, there has been an on-going momentum to raise the position of the black race, especially in the American psyche. To me, Dr King (and all the people who pushed, and continue to push for equality through civil rights movement), Rev Jesse Jackson and so on have been acting as foreunners.

These foreunners also included Colin Powell (first as a soldier and later as a politician) and, yes, Dr Condoleeza Rice, and I dare add, Obama himself. These people, to the black race and their struggle for equality in America, are like John the Baptist in the Bible. They are the voices crying in the desert asking for people, here Americans, to prepare for the coming of the blackman to occupy their rightful place, not just in the White House, but in mainstream American body politic.

What, therefore all those clamouring and pushing for Obama to "ascend" and "occupy" this throne now are doing is a great disservice to all the efforts and sacrifices most Americans black and white have made at creating the enabling environment and softening the path for the designated black leader whenever he or she will come. HEY PEOPLE, OUR TIME HAS NOT COME!

In fact, George Bush, no matter what your opinion is about him, has contributed tremendously in this on-going roadmap for the ascension of a black president in America. For one thing, his appointment of Colin Powell as the first black Secretary of State was a very positive and praiseworthy act. And when he followed that up with the appointment of Dr Rice, a black woman, and the second woman in American history (after Madeleine Albright) to hold that position, he has implanted in the minds and psyche of most Americans that one does not need to be white and male to be Secretary of State. What all these appointments have done was to soften the ground for the time when a blackman can occupy the White House without looking over his shoulders or without being a prisoner or stooge to the white community of America.

Obama, with due respect to his intelligence, experience and sterling character, will end up, if he wins the presidency now, being subject to manipulation by those who think that the stool is theirs. The power balance in Wahsington is still very heavily tilting towards the white. Any black who chances into the White House now, will be too weak to make any positive impression on the throne.

Worse still, should he win, the lives of a lot of people dear to him would be in danger. Why, do I hear you ask? Well, I will say just a few words here. If Obama wins, he would be a worse lame duck than the current occupant of the White House. He is in a no-win situation. He must therefore dance to the tunes being played by not just the power holders, but he must dance in accordance with the dominant American macho, gung-ho culture. If he fails to do so, he may not live to tell the story. And if he continues with such culture, he would disappoint an enormous number of people. Worse still, he would have stepped on the toes of a lot of black and Arab hot heads. And if they can't reach him they MAY hurt the people around him. And those people may not necessarily be in America.

Herein lies my reason for suggesting that Obama should withdraw from this race now. He should be content with playing the role as one of those voices crying in the political wilderness of America. That will serve everybody better. Everybody, including the whites of America, the Arabs (some of whom would call for him to "come back" to Islam) and the black race.

There are loads of other reasons which I do not want to state here, for now. But just try and understand, it is not an accident that racism and religion have reared their ugly heads in the on-going campaign. More importantly, we are still going through nomination. The real race starts when Obama faces the dreaded Republican campaign strategists who will be keen to remind America that the race is between a blue-eyed "patriot" who nearly gave his life for America and a young blackman whose other family members live in Africa and whose dead father was a moslem, etc, etc.

I will say more at a more auspicous time.