President Barack Obama took office just over two years ago. His inauguration seemed like a monumental time that would be recorded in the annals of history, as the point where America was somehow becoming the country it thought it was. I, like many young African Americans have ached to believe that our parents were correct when they told us you can be whatever you aspire to be. "Work hard, be the best and no one can deny your dreams." I, like many young African Americans know the complicated history of the country we love. We want to believe that America is a work in progress and the inauguration of this one man, whether you voted for him or not, is a symbol of that work. We know, just as the cracks of whips opened the wounds of racism on the back of this country, his inauguration served as a sign that undoubtedly those wounds were healing. Realistically, I was bit more skeptical.
April 27, 2011 President Obama, annoyed with the triviality of today's political message, produced his long form birth certificate. He did it to Quell the likes of Donald Trump and others(but mainly Trump) who had gone on a media blitz questioning the Presidents birth documents. The same documents that have allowed the President to get a drivers license, passport and any other official document where identity and to some extent citizenship must be proven.
Personally, I wouldn't have shown it. This show and prove mentality finds its roots in American society prior to the abolition of slavery. Black men and women who had worked and bought their freedom or had been freed by their former masters, had to carry their freedom papers with them everywhere to prove that they were as free as the constitution promised. That mentality, did not die with the civil war, abolition of slavery, or reconstruction. It didn't die during the roaring twenties or the great depression. It didn't die during World War II or the Civil Rights movement. It didn't die with Brown v. Board of Education or the Voting Rights Act. While black people are no longer asked to show their freedom papers in order to freely walk the streets, the mentality has been kept on life support. It lives through campus police at colleges across the country asking to see black or Hispanic students I.D's to prove they are students. It manifests itself in neighborhood cops checking identification of kids who don't look like they belong. It clings to existence in notable individuals asking President Obama to show his college grades. Finally, it is fully resuscitated with the President of the free world being forced to prove the already proven,that he is qualified to hold the office.
There was never any definitive proof that Obama wasn't born in Hawaii. There is no proof that Obama was not qualified to attend Columbia and Harvard Law. So, why do these kinds of unfounded ideas thrive? We have to understand the true statement being made to freed slaves 200 years ago, "You don't deserve to be here, you are not wanted here, you will never belong here and as long as you stay here we will be watching you waiting for our chance to remove you" the vitriol of today may not be as harsh or widely accepted as it was then, but the message remains the same. The "birther" issue is manifestation of this idea, created to satisfy a segment of the population who is still receptive to the show a prove mentality when it concerns people who don't look like them. President Obama is the leader of the free world. Arguably, the most powerful person of color in the history of the world. Yet, in America the absence of shackles is not enough evidence that you are free......Obama, show us your papers.
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