The Globalization of Barack Obama

For years, every-time African Americans “claimed” Sir Sidney Poitier, especially his achievement as the first Black man to win an Academy Award, I would experience an unsettling emotion. To this day, it is difficult to define what that emotion was but Sidney Poitier was born to Bahamian parentage and I guess as a fellow Bahamian before personal enlightenment, it was difficult to see him and his success branded and identified with another People.

As time has passed, with the continual evolution of the spirit of humanity, globalization is not just a fancy term associated with international trade pacts and more sophisticated manifestations of the mechanisms of capitalism. Globalization can very well become the term used to capture a growing “Movement” of interconnected human rights, freedoms, and victories. More and more life is revealing how in the midst of the many differences of the many different nationalities of people around the world there is something more remarkable about those few things which make us the same. Whether the cry of a hungry child in the poorest or richest nation; or the reaction of third or first world citizens in the face of cataclysmic devastation experienced through the fury of some act of nature; or the common expression of joy and pride in response to a golden victory at the Olympic games, there are basic things that keep we humans – basic and connected.

The election of Barack Obama as the first African American President elect of the United States of America is a phenomenon which is likely to give pronouncement to this global shared “Heart” movement aforementioned. Far more notable than that notable achievement of Sidney Poitier for his performance on the big screen, Obama’s victory is something the entire world wants to share in and identify with. And I don’t think the average African American has really grasped it. Barack Obama is not the typical African American. He does not share in the history of the majority of Blacks in a post slavery, post segregation, post Jim Crow America. He is the son not of a Black American who is more than 400 years removed from Africa by the evil arms of a trans- Atlantic slave trade. Barack Obama is the son of an African.

The symbolism of President Obama then is much greater than that of a typical African American carrying on the baton of a Martin Luther King Jr., or to a lesser extent Jesse Jackson or Jamaican parented, Colin Powell. It is far more complex and enormous. This great man whose very name conjures up images of those regions of Africa burdened with the most telling statistics of poverty and AIDS and tribal warfare and political instability born out of an un-reconciled past, has brought the greatest paradox to the most powerful seat in the World. The son of poor Africa, broken Africa, dying Africa, is President of the United States of America – this son of the weakest in our World is soon to be the most powerful man in the World.

But even in the presence of a strictly American context as Obama is also the son of White America, married to a “daughter of the dust’ of historical Black America, President Obama’s story presents a challenge to all humankind. This young, seemingly insignificant man with limited resources but a compelling message of change stood up against historically entrenched American political bias fueled by corruption and greed and did the impossible. That he found the nerve to do it, forces each of us to also find a giant injustice and attempt to bring it to its knees. That he won, we are all forced now to believe beyond the point of hope, that all things are indeed possible.

This point of positive yet radical discontinuity has no end to the depths of its meaning. Those fueled by a hatred for America must redefine their battle as Obama’s peaceful triumph has renewed the beauty internationally, of democracy and the American experiment. Even Christian Theology, in the twinkling of an eye, has been deepened again as its dimensions return us to an emphasis of what God can do through us as opposed to what God can do for us. The hope of the various religious expressions and even those who cannot imagine the presence of God has turned into the challenge of belief.

Hence when humanity asks itself if we can overcome poverty, AIDS, terrorism or the current global financial crisis; can Third world countries move toward self sufficiency or can a planet in peril find the collective will to restore itself; can predominately Black societies across the World end the cycle of violence, apathy, self hatred and crippling dependence; can we rid our streets of drugs, and restore a sense of peace to our homes, schools and communities; can all children of the World expect and receive basic needs, healthcare and education; can more of us pursue dreams and live purpose driven lives; can all races and creeds harmoniously work toward the betterment of all mankind? … The collective response through action must be a resounding, “YES WE CAN!”

What helped me to accept the African American “claim” to Sir Sidney Poitier was my recognition that these were the people who had accepted the challenge of his success and chose to follow, maybe even exceed his path which before him remained lightly tread but unbeaten. It was America and her Hollywood who had been forever changed by the presence of a Bahamian who took on the identity of an African American and achieved the impossible. And it had been disenfranchised African Americans whose minds and hearts had been more deeply inspired as Sir Sidney tore down boundaries and in that Hollywood context, made all things possible.

So too the legacy of President Barack Obama’s election victory will belong not necessarily to the American people but to all those people who embrace this moment as an opportunity in their own lives to pursue and defeat impossible odds in that Movement toward a fairer, kinder more gentler World. This is our challenge, the possibility of which is no longer a mere hope but a fact!