World | USA
Obama's election gives a symbolic boost to blacks
The election of the first black president in US history should send a powerful signal to young black Americans: If Barack Obama made it, so can you.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:50 November 16, 2008
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Atlanta: The election of the first black president in US history should send a powerful signal to young black Americans: If Barack Obama made it, so can you.
But some African Americans living in inner city Atlanta said while Obama is a role model, his life appeared so far removed from their own struggles that it was difficult to see how they could use it to spur their own success.
Others said that even something as momentous as Obama's election would not make it easy to acquire the self-belief that they needed to move forward.
"If Barack has made it into office there is no excuse to say that America is racist because he has proved that you can do something," said Lebron Cook, 22, who registered for the first time to vote for Obama on November 4.
More than 20 per cent of all black men born from 1965 through 1969 served time in prison by the time they reached their early 30s, said a study published in the American Sociological Association journal in 2006.
That figure soared for young blacks who had not been to college. By comparison, less than 3 per cent of white men born in the same time period had been to jail, said the study.
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"The only way that he [Obama] can make a substantial change is if he addresses things like poverty and joblessness and those deep pervasive factors that affect black boys and men," said film maker Byron Hurt.
Hurt's latest film, Barack and Curtis, is a 10-minute documentary released on the internet that compares the image projected by Obama with the image of Curtis Jackson, who is better known as the rapper 50 Cent.
The movie argues that Obama's image, as an educated, family man is a stark contrast with that of 50 Cent, who made an album called The Massacre and is famous in part for having been shot nine times in a gang-related incident.
Even though Obama's election was not a panacea for black men, the importance of the example he sets could not be underestimated, Hurt said.
"The boost that he has given black men is more symbolic than anything else," said Hurt. "But I don't want to undervalue symbolism and image. When I see images of Barack Obama in a baseball hat taking his daughters to school ... that is a powerful image."
Many black Americans said the election result overturned so many deeply held beliefs about the way America perceived its black minority, which makes up around 13 per cent of the population, that it would take time to digest its impact.
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