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Today is going to be a groundbreaker. Today is going to be historical. Today is going to turn things back around for the Obama campaign... for the good. This is my audacity of hope as a bi-racial woman who has lived a life so close to Barack Obama's in so many ways.
I, like Obama, am the product of a white mother and a black father. I too, like Obama, was raised for a time by my white mother because my black father abandoned us when I was very young to pursue his own goals. I too, like Obama, was raised by a surrogate who stepped in when my mother was suffering. I too, like Obama, grew up with discrimination and confusion. I too, like Obama, grew up as a devout Christian. I too, like Obama, pulled myself up by my bootstraps and went to a prestigious college beyond the doubts of many.
I too, am a person whose biracial parents are no longer alive to see history being made. I am also a bi-racial woman who is Christian and heard words I didn't agree with spoken by a beloved Pastor whom I adored and looked up to, who also baptized me and my children. And now I am faced with a Christian dilemma. I too, like Obama, grew up with a mother who told me that people were better than the sum of their parts, that things would get better, and that I was the catalyst to make that change happen if I could recogize and realize my power within.
My mother, like Obama's mother, believed that it was better for me to keep on hoping and watching for this change in people. She told me that despite the distancing, alienation, and discrimination I experienced from others -- including my own blood family (her parents, sisters, aunts and uncles) -- I should look beyond their shortcomings to a brighter future. She knew instinctively that there would come a time in history, such as this time, when a bi-racial person would be the only catalyst to unify and join people together for change.
My mother, a white woman, said this to me many times throughout my life. She also prepared me, like Obama, to be the catalyst for this change because as she always told me, "I had the best of both worlds." I had the internal DNA (unlike anyone else) to know how to bridge people together, not because of a personal desire to do good for all people and not because of a learned Christian duty. But, solely because, as she told me, God in all his wisdom had a specific intention for people like me: to be the band-aid that would bring people together beyond their divided past. The only question would be how would I search within to find a way to manifest this internal God-given gift to see it birthed into frution. A nation no longer divided because of race, gender, sexual preference, etc.
