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Showing posts from March, 2009

A Dream Renewed? Africans in America and the Obama Phenomenon.

A Dream Renewed? Africans in America and the Obama Phenomenon. Keynote Speech Monmouth University Black History Month February 2, 2009 What better way to capture the essence of the African American struggle and the Obama phenomenon than as a dream? When the campaigns began, most people were more likely to say: “Barack who?” There were also many puns on Senator Barack Hussein Obama’s name, fears among many voters that he was a Muslim, and since Obama was trying to wrest the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidacy from Hilary Clinton, more senior senator, former first lady, passionate and well prepared, supported by numerous prominent Black leaders, he seemed at best, foolhardy.   When at the time, he spoke of Hope, and came up with the slogan: “Yes we can,” he seemed positively delusional. Even when he won the primaries in many states, as soon as he lost a state, such as with Pennsylvania, instead of inspiring hope, he evoked derision from the right