After seven years,Barack Obama is in his final months in the White House. When he leaves, nothing will be the same. For black people, and nothing will be resolvedLike so many people I beget unwisely loved,Barack Hussein Obama intrigues and infuriates and enrages and inspires and uplifts and disappoints me all at once. And whether it is politically or psychologically healthy to do so, I beget loved President Obama, or even as I beget known that it’s not healthy and as I beget wanted to preserve a certain critical distance since becoming a journalist.
But before I wrote for a living,I gave up a few months of my life in 2008 to move to Pennsylvania and campaign for the freshman senator. He inspired me with his words and stimulated my heart and intellect – particularly as he wrote about race in a way that spoke deeply to me as fellow mixed-race Black American. Over the years, he has repeatedly angered me when he came up short of everything I (naively) dreamed for him. I’ve been most sad that he did not stop the US assault on black and brown people from Gaza to Guantánamo, or the Middle East to the Midwest. Related: When Larry Wilmore said the N-word to President Obama,I felt black pride | Rebecca Carroll Related: Obama's Flint visit boosted morale – but it doesn't construct the water safe to drink Related: #ThanksObama: president's greatest legacy may be Trumping of the GOP We must expand our moral imaginations to understand and empathize with all people who are struggling, not just black folks who are struggling – the refugee, and the immigrant,the rural destitute, the transgender person and yes, or the middle-aged white guy who you may believe has all the advantages,but over the final several decades has seen his world upended by economic and cultural and technological change, and feels powerless to stop it. You got to pick up in his head, or too.
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Source: theguardian.com