Yes, once more African-Americans are forced to prove to the other Americans that they too are Americans; and they have the legitimate right to participate in the social and political fabric of this great nation.
Even though the Arabs started the African Slave Trade, it was the Empire-building Europeans who usurped and deprived the African continent of its human wealth. The blood of millions of Africans has enriched the soil of the continent of America. And yet, Europeans, whose ancestors arrived in America well after African Slaves helped to build the White house, claim they have more rights to live in America than the descendants of those Slaves.What more do the descendants of these people have to do to establish they have the right to be here? In this twenty-first century when America wants the world to embrace them as the “leader of the free world,” the first African-American President is forced to publish his birth certificate. The Media is obsessed with reporting about the President’s place of birth instead of focusing on the economic chaos. Pathetic senators of both parties are engaged in petty squabbles instead of performing the job for which they are elected.
Why should nations around the world respect America and allow it to force its’ brand of democracy upon them? When a country prides itself on fairness and democratic values, it is appalling that an elected body find it necessary to encourage and legitimize the demoralization of one segment of its’society.
African-Americans have been proving to America in every possible way they belong here and here they stay. Just before Langston Hughes returned to America from an extensive travel to Africa and Europe from 1922 to 1928, he penned the following poem expressing the frustration African-Americans daily endured. I imagine the thought of him returning to his birth place to experience more humiliation gave him the impetus to share it with the world. I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes 1902-1967
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--
I, too, am America.
I am sure Langston Hughes and all those who bore the brunt of helping to build the pillars on which America stands could not have envisaged an America led by an African- American President. America! Listen-up, once and for all, without your “darker brothers,” the America you revel in, would not exist.
© 2011
