Give me an African-American president who knows that because his ancestors lived in Africa, they were deemed non-persons and unworthy of human rights and dignity. Give me an African-American president whose ancestors were derided as ‘monkeys’ and ‘apes’ because of their skin color and facial features. Such a president would know that a person’s humanity and dignity does not depend on where he is — even if he is in the womb — or the way he looks — even if he looks ‘subhuman’ to someone else.
Give me an African-American president whose ancestors were treated like objects to be bought and sold and even killed by their ‘owners.’ Such a president would know that no human being, no matter how weak and vulnerable, is an object to be disposed of at the whim of another, more powerful person.
Give me an African-American president whose ancestors were intelligent, resourceful men and women, but were treated like simple children who had to rely on the goodwill of their white masters for work, healthcare, housing and safety. Give me an African-American president who felt the humiliation of his father and grandfather being called ‘Boy.’ Such a president would not treat his fellow Americans like foolish children who need to rely on an elite government bureaucracy for everything.
Give me an African-American president whose ancestors were forbidden by law to read and write. Such a president would understand the inestimable value of a true education, and would appoint officials whose aim is education, not politically correct propaganda in our schools.
Give me an African-American president whose ancestors had to ask permission to marry, or if allowed to marry, had to live separately; whose spouses and children could be sold away from them, never to be reunited. Give me an African-American president whose ancestors’ families were shattered by the rape of their mothers and sisters and daughters, the unjust imprisonment and lynching of fathers, sons and brothers. Such a president would understand the sanctity of marriage, family and home, and would support welfare, tax and divorce laws that protect and strengthen the natural, two-parent family.
Give me an African-American president whose forefathers had no freedom to choose a professional career, who were locked out of trades, who had to take menial jobs below their talents and intelligence, putting aside their dreams and aspirations. Such a president would value and promote the freedom every American to enter into the marketplace and become as successful as possible, without government restrictions and interference, because his people know what it is to be shut out of the American Dream.
Give me a me an African-American president whose grandmothers had their children torn from their arms, leaving a wound that never healed. Give me an African-American president whose grandmothers were treated as sexual objects to be used and thrown away. Such a president would respect women, and not advocate an anti-woman policy that amounts to ‘use them, scrape them out, and use them again.’ Such a president would listen to the cries of women wounded by abortion, women whose empty arms will always ache for the children torn from them.
Give me an African-American president whose ancestors were not allowed to vote or run for political office. Such a president would understand that in a democracy the power elite must not ignore or silence the voice of any citizen.
Give me an African-American president whose ancestors’ only way to protest their enslavement was to comfort themselves with Bible stories of freedom and redemption. Such a president would understand that religion and faith are necessary to the human spirit, and would do everything to promote the free exercise of religion.
Give me an African-American president whose ancestors did not choose to go to America, whose ancestors were systematically and legally denied every kind of liberty. Give me an African-American president whose ancestors experienced everything that is ugly and ignoble in American society — racism, discrimination, prejudice, disenfranchisement, injustice — and who nevertheless struggled, fought and even died to gain their rightful place as equal citizens of the country of their birth. Such a president will know the value of freedom.
