Election Night

My mother and I stayed up late to watch the election results, and when they came in, she screamed in disbelief. Then she began to cry. If you have ever seen my mom cry, you will know that it is not a pretty sight. But, I wept real ugly, right with her. I'm sorry...I came undone...

I wept because she was remembering a day I was blessed never to see. I have faced some levels of racism and prejudice - called "Nigger" right to my face, denied jobs I was clearly qualified for, treated as an outsider even in my undergrad studies when I thought my intelligence and love of Christ indicated that I deserved to be treated as an equal.

But she has seen so much more. She has experienced some things she has never shared.

She has seen her father and mother's determination to give their children a better life than they had. She heard the account of her father's ambush by a group of young white men when he was young and the way his life was spared by an elderly white woman that refused to see "Mandie's boy" harmed in any way. (Mandie was his mother.) She had witnessed the hard work and harsh treatment her mother sometimes endured at her job as a nurse's aide in a hospital years ago. My uncle had told her of the difficulty she had growing up in the South, along with my grandfather. And she herself lived the life, along with her brother and sisters, of a member of the third generation of an African-American family this side of slavery.

I cried with my mother as she sobbed her father and mother's names, wishing they were here in the physical to see such a monumental occasion in this country. I wept with her as she dialed her brother and sister up to celebrate long distance.

But I also cried as I looked at the pictures of my nieces and nephews adorning every available surface and showcased on the walls. They have always been very important to me, to us. I did not pursue goals outside of Michigan until they were all out of the formative years and entering their teen years. I wanted to make an impact on them while they were little.

As I gazed at their smiling faces in retrospect, I realized that no matter what happens in this presidency, they will always have the reminder that they can shoot for the moon and hit another solar system. They can separate themselves from the stigma of racism and overcome that demon.

We are doing that now for the next generation. And no, we are nowhere near being totally fulfilled. We have some people out there that are very angry that we have a Black (bi-racial) President in this country and are planning to kill him. There are people that wish him dead - him and his family, simply because he is of African and Caucasian descent (perhaps an anomaly in the White House?). There are even people of color (I know a few) that are not glad that he and his family will grace the halls of that mansion.

But I am praying that the beginning we had yesterday will continue for the sake of the children whose lives have been affected from the first day until now. I am also praying that God will have His way in this country. I happen to believe He will. He has heard the cry of the oppressed and the day for vindication is today, right now.