According to YouTube comments, Obama is not a good president.
According to Twitter, Obama is not a good president.
Depending on whom you ask, Obama is the worst president ever.
But when it’s all said and done, Barrack Obama will go down as one of the most culturally important presidents the United States has ever had.
Whether you love him or hate him, Obama represents a huge step forward in our country because, as we should always remember, at this country’s inception the idea of a black citizen was unfathomable. Black people, my people, were chained, counted as less than human, forced into soul crushing labor, torn from their homes, and taught that they didn’t matter. Even after slavery was outlawed, Jim Crow laws, programmed prejudice, and a lack of reparations ensured that trials of black people were all but over.
Amidst all the struggle and strife, many leaders rose in an effort to help black people combat the pitfalls of oppression. Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale all stood up to show the world that black people were capable of standing up and fighting for what they believed in. And that’s when Obama comes in.
The American presidency is considered the highest office that anyone can occupy in the entire world. There were forty-three presidents before Obama, and while they may have had their differences, there was not a single one of them that wasn’t a white man. So when Obama began his campaign everyone naturally took interest.
While his pigment may have immediately intrigued the world, Obama gave them plenty of reasons to stay. Displaying grace, optimism, and eloquence, Obama entranced the world, prompting a record voter turnout and securing his spot as the first ever black president. This historic win wasn’t about one man achieving a lifelong dream. Instead, it was about an entire race of people conquering hatred.
For generations, black people felt like they couldn’t get ahead, that prejudice against people of color was just an inevitability that we would have to accept as a natural part of life. But Obama’s election came as reminder that it is never foolish to hope, that we should always try to move forward be better, and that a group of people not even considered human can rise to become leader of the free world, or anything else they want.
Obama, like all presidents, will certainly be judged by his actions while in office. The changes he made, the lives he touched, and the issues he fought for will undoubtedly be the guiding force as history writes his legacy. But there is one thing that should never be questioned, something that is without fail one of the greatest achievements of any president ever, and something we can all commend Obama for immediately: the fact that he broke the glass ceiling and stands as a symbol for all marginalized people everywhere that anything is possible.
So, it is without any malice or sarcasm whatsoever that I proudly declare “Thanks Obama!”
