Jack & Jill Politics

Thanks to NMP for this hat tip.

The President and the First Lady opened up the White House to ‘ the people’ on their first day in the White House.

Look at what The Sista is wearing on her back. She’s got Africa on one panel, Barack Obama on another. I don’t know what’s on the other side. OF COURSE, she would wear it to The White House with pride.

When I first saw the picture, I smiled. Then, I reread NMP’s comment:
Another ‘look how far we’ve come moment’. Young Black men (braids in all) in the White House meeting the Black President……

When I commented that Obama wasn’t the first President to open The White House to ‘ the people’,

NMP responded:
True enough, but how many of ‘our people’ have ever had any interest in going inside? Or should I say felt like they belonged inside? knowing DC as I know it, there are countless kids that look like him and of the same age who have lived in DC all of their young lives and have never been past Eastern Market. That’s effectively the segregation line in DC. They have never seen the Capitol, Washington Monument or the White House up close. As far as they were concerned, those national monuments meant as much to them as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Despite DC being majority Black, it’s one of the most segregated cities in the country. Yesterday may very well have been the first time that DC was integrated. So for me, that image was powerful.

NMP was right. I studied the first picture, and I was lucky enough to find at The Black Snob the one of the young man shaking President Obama’s hand.

Look at that picture. How many of us have passed this young man on the street and had all these ideas about him? Was one of those ideas – ‘ this young man wants to meet The President of the United States’. No, I believe it wouldn’t have made the list.

This was a goosebumps moment that I didn’t even realize I wanted to see.