Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Our Patchwork Heritage

This is a very personal blog about what Barak's speech means to me. I came into this country in 1985, as a brown woman, one of those persons Barak referred to in his inauguration speech as the one who picked up their belongings and came to this country for "us", my children. As so, unlike the African American people who looked to this day from the perspective of the past, where they and their ancestors, survived intense discrimination, I look at it from the perspective of the future. I was lucky that my ancestors did not endure the segregation and slavery that will always cloud black heritage. But, as I said to my children, I voted in Texas for Barak, not because I think my vote will count, but because someday I can tell my grandchildren that I voted for the first black President of the United States. Sure I faced discrimination, so did my children. But we did not let that dampen us. We forged ahead and yes, we could. In today's America yes, we can, and so can everybody who is willing to work hard. And hopefully this message will spread not only in America but to the rest of the world as well. America, and particularly Texas-- in the 1980s and 1990s, you told us to not aim high, to stay below the radar of white America. We did not listen to you, and today You are better because of our defiance.

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