A Barack Obama Campaign Diary

“Yo, What you think about da Obama guy, man!?” I’m getting pissed with the crazy ass white folks, man!”

“Hey, that hardball politics ain’t gonna fly, man!” “You feel me?”

“I feel you, dawg!”

“Obama ain’t black. He ain’t got no clue what been happening in the hood, man.”

“I hear you my brother. I ain’t voting for nobody. Nothing’s gonna change, man! You feel me?

“I feel you dawg!”

Another voice would pop up and say, “Hey, man, you listening to the damn liars? They ain’t nothing but liars, man. They ain’t got nothing for you, and you better quit dreaming, man! You feel me, though?”

“I feel you dawg!!”

“Ammo take it like it is man. I’m a hustler hommie and I don’t give a damn about what you guys say. Ammo hustle man to keep food on the table. Ammo do anything to survive, man. I’m a soldier, man. I got five little kids, hommie. Ammo hustle and buy dem bad ass rims, hommie. Dem lying politicians ain’t gonna buy toys and clothes for my kids, man. ‘Am a hustler hommie and ammo keep it straight. Ammo keep it straight, man! You feel me?”

“You da man!! You da man!! You da man, and I feel you dawg!!!”

“Hey, you guys ain’t real, man. Obama is the man and he is giving us hope that one day we shall overcome our predicaments. You see what I’m saying? And that’s for real man. Obama ain’t no educated fool. He got game and he is for real, my brother!”

“I hear you dawg!”

“Come on, man, you guys just don’t get it. Ammo tell you why. Obama ain’t black and he ain’t white either and you guys better quit playing the race card. He ain’t got nothing against anybody. He just wants the damn crooked politicians to get out of the way so America can be a better place for us all. Obama is the man and he got my vote. You feel me, man?”

“I feel you dawg!”

“You guys been tripping. What’s all the fuss about da Obama ain’t black or white? Ammo tell you guys something. I need money. I need a job. I need to hang out in the hood and do my thang. I need to cruise in my Chevy Impala low-rider with dem tight chicks on Crenshaw and no damn cop chasing me cuz I’m black. I wanna be free, man. You feel me?”

“I feel you dawg!”

“Ok, let’s be real guys. Ammo go out there and vote for Obama. I don’t care what you guys say cuz I know Obama is for real man. I know and you know Obama gonna change America. And If I vote and you vote we know he’s gonna win and that’s all we need my brother. You feel me, man?”

“I feel you dawg!”

“Okay, guys, why don’t we agree on one thing. The Clintons and the Bushes been running this country for a while and ain’t nothing happening but lying to the people, man. They been fighting and throwing bombs here and there making America look bad, man. They been throwing bombs all over, man. They been killing my brothers in Africa, man. They been taking all our treasures, man. These white folks are bad, man. Let’s give the black man a chance and you see what’s gonna happen. You feel me?”

“I feel you dawg!!”

“Look man, I don’t know what you guys been talking about. Ammo stick to the dude about dem tight gals and low-rider on Crenshaw, man! Dem cops been chasing us around cuz we been driving while black. You see what I’m saying? For real man, they been all over us cuz a brother been making some little change, hustling, man, hanging out in the hood with dem gals. I got to hustle to help my baby mama put food on the table, man! I don’t care about no damn politician. He ain’t gonna put food on the table, man!! You feel me?”

“I feel you dawg!!!”

That’s the story of the gang banger and hustler who is getting by on a daily basis doing the best out of a very bad situation which is typical with the “hood rats” in the projects and South Central Los Angeles. Some of them with records beyond imagination and they wonder how change is about to come, all of a sudden, with a black president who was raised under humble circumstances and had no clue what’s been going on in the projects with majority of these kids not knowing who “their daddy is.” They wonder how a polarized system can change all that.

It is a sad reality when one thinks about it. The 18th Street Gang. The 48th Street Crips. The East Los Angeles Gang stretching from Boyle Heights to Alhambra, the Gangs of South Central Los Angeles, Watts, Compton, Long Beach, Lynwood, Hawthorne and the Crenshaw District are areas of political interest now that “change” has become the keyword in this fascinating campaign. What kids in these gang infested neighborhoods are calling for is a profound leadership that would give them a sense of purpose, to rise above the limitations imposed on them for a better future. And the Obama campaign team should put this into perspective and make it a priority with regards to “change” and “yes we can.”

Though Obama is talking about change, and perhaps, it’s about to happen, that is, if he gets the mandate in a polarized American culture. I’m not sure if he has taken that into perspective throughout his campaign that seemingly would change America for good and California in particular, dating back to the Gold Rush when aggressive slave power was the subject matter and when a financial oligarchic class took laws into their own hands.

The fears expressed by these young kids in the ghetto, and programmed projects as in welfare state would definitely not change anything considering the fact that these underprivileged kids have been programmed through all sorts of government regulated social programs to have limited abilities to unshackle themselves from the bondage that is coupled with a government which has persistently maintained the status quo with limitations imposed in the hoods, and associated with widespread crime waves that has no end in sight.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Obama and I want him to be the next president of the United States with no color lines but for the fact American is desperately in need of change and the time should be now in order to get rid of a very deceptive and corrupt administration typical of Ulysses Grant, Warren G. Harding administrations, respectively. The George W. Bush administration has destroyed America, in its entirety, and nobody is really sure how long a new democratic administration, be it Clinton or Obama, would administer in putting America back on track in terms of its economy and its relationship with the Western World and other relative global leaders.

And we hope if Obama wins, a new age of prosperity and the “era of good feelings” would resurface which is why Obama should be given the chance on the ground he was raised a common man knowing in detail what it means surviving the odds. He had gone through Occidental College in Los Angeles, Columbia University in New York and Harvard University in Cambridge, all in quest for a “common purpose” Americans like him needed. Are the “hood rats” listening? I hope so!! Are they? I hope so, I hope so!! I definitely hope so!!!

Just at the end of 43rd Place and Degnan Boulevard that stretches down from series of black businesses at Leimert Park in Black Township, if you are a tourist or just poking around, you will notice one thing typical as the political campaigns heats up with Barack Obama posters here and there hyping up the idea that a black president is around the corner. And it has been atmospheric like introducing the next president of the United States, Senator Barack Obama. The name is all over the place and one can tell a second generation immigrant has shown that it is possible, and of course, “Yes we can.”

So when I bumped into black fellas from all walks of life at this historic place known for its thriving businesses relating to African cultural heritage – Papa’s West, African Treasures, Kumasi Gift Shop, World Stage Performance Gallery, African Heritage & Antique Collection, Hisam’s African & Urban Wear, Eso Won Book Store, Zambezi, Ackee Bamboo Restaurant, Lucy Florence Cultural Center, 5th Street Dick’s Coffeehouse, Leimert Park Eye Wear, etc. – I had the ultimate feel that Obama has arrived and it’s about time for the white folks to show some respect after hundreds of years of slavery, the separate but equal Jim Crow ballast and the Civil Rights Movement from around which blacks went through hell in America.

Of course, Obama is the “man of the hour,” never mind the “hood rats,” though their point remains very relevant because it is perceived to be the “same old song,” over and over again, which is typical of political campaigns. But Obama has changed a whole lot and we are beginning to see a difference since the history of political campaigns in an America that survived slave labor, segregation, Civil War, free speech, annexation and international conflicts.

I have not digged into Obama and all that campaign slogans with Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator John McCain until browsing Shelby Steel’s new book “A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can’t Win,” which is about an emerging black president, even with the debates and tabloid sensationalism as I have thought I should make a sketch and caricature that comes along with cocky politicians of our day, checking my mailbox during the course of my usual runs, was March 2008 edition of Ebony Magazine and guess what, Obama was on the cover with bold prints, “IN OUR LIFETIME: ARE WE REALLY WITNESSING THE ELECTION OF THE NATION’S FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT?”

I read every bit of the story starting with “How Team Obama & Black America Are Making History,” a detailed campaign run covered by Sylvester Monroe, Kevin Chappell & Brian Monroe exclusively for Ebony Magazine. The tale – without tell-flaws -- was electric, Shakespearean, and amazing with an interesting opening act. 30-year-old Karen Richardson who studied law at Howard University had in 2005 interned at Senator Obama’s office in Washington D.C. She got hooked with “Obama fever” and abandoned every other project in her ensuing career committing herself to some great stuff when called upon to take the position of political director in Iowa State. That leadership role gave Obama Iowa without qualms. And so the story goes.

Richardson doesn’t have many words to explain her excitement when picked to run the show in Iowa. Well traveled and dedicated to change she said:

“When they asked me to stay on, I was sort of on a different course. But I looked at Barack and the way he interacted with his staff. I knew he was brilliant, and I looked at his character. There are a lot of smart people, but being on the Senate staff with him, you knew there was something special happening. All that combined to keep me there. It just felt right.”

What is more touching to me in the Obama for President Campaign is the drama at the barber shops. I did have to poke around and do some crazy stuff notably with the interest I have picked in this energetic and brilliant man who has survived all battle wounds growing up not knowing much about his father. Barber shops to me are like the comedy clubs where if you can’t control your emotions you will leave with cracked ribs.

My first point of call was a newly opened barber shop called Total Body Retreat Barber Shop on La Brea and Florence just around the corner from Inglewood’s bubbling Civic Center where everybody is talking about politics, the coming of age in the 21st Century and precisely “change” that would perhaps turn things around based on a new generation of voters. Obama’s sign graced every lawn in this barber shop and loquacious clients and youngish barbers had begun to engage in the kind of politics never seen before in a generation that is beginning to get the awareness of why “my vote should count in effecting change.” A new generation has popped up and like the saying goes, “politics make strange bedfellows.” The coinage should be rather “new age politics make good buddies” feeling how these kids are sticking together for change.

There was not much ado about the other barber shop – Magic Artistic Barber and Beauty Salon – down the street just by the Inglewood Car Wash on La Brea and Hardy. It was kind of mellow, lacking enthusiasm with old school flavored politics. Though politics was discussed but it had a nagging and who cares kind of flavor typical of the old guards the youngish entrepreneurs are clamoring for its change.

But the TV talk shows and radio commentators on both sides of the political spectrum – the left and the right, or perhaps the progressives and the neo-cons – doesn’t really matter in what has been going on at these barber shops as these young generations deals with reality, on a day-to-day basis, with all hopes being dashed by an outrageous administration. They have seen the downsizing, the ridiculous hike in gas prices, the increasingly crime waves in the neighborhoods, the slowing business activities as a result of the so-called “Bush Doctrine” which only benefits the rich, widening the gap between the haves and have-nots, and the whole concept that America is falling apart with every situation “not getting any better.” They have seen the “American Dream” slip away by hopelessness.

About a decade ago, not too many black folks were interested in voting to decide who the next president of the United States would be on the basis an election would not “change anything,” that the same old politicians and their sugar-coated mouth would continuously be the story, and that once these politicians are elected into office, the story changes and nothing gets done. But now, this new generation of “progressives,” from about a decade ago which seems to be diminishing the strength of the Baby Boomers are doing something different. They now belong to the political elite class. They have been raised humble from the past baby booming years, and they are beginning to realize American destiny should be in their own hands, thus the desperate need for a change of the guards. They want out of the old school kind of politics. And they mean it. And that is one of the reasons why they are now totally engaged in making sure change comes about with a new kind of leadership.

So, when one delves into the Obama campaign camp, it has increasingly become obvious that a new generation of political pragmatists have emerged sounding off on the continuous cliché of “change.” Nonetheless, the black vote is very relevant and just like Professor Ronald Walters of University of Maryland observed, “The Black vote is extremely important. The problem is that it is more powerful when it coalesces. It is weaker when it is divided. The name of the game is power not representation.”

Of course, “power” is the keyword and if Blacks should come out and vote en-masse for “change,” a derailed “Bush Doctrine” will be history in American politics just for the economical damage it has caused the American people.

For the last few months, anybody reading the newspapers and journals or watching talk or political TV shows could only conclude that the way of American politics has changed and Obamanian quest for change is spreading across America. It has been very interesting! It has been interesting, indeed!! And we hope it gets more interesting as the conventions draws nearer.

And with Obama defeating Clinton in the Vermont primaries some hours ago as I wrap up this piece, Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island is now up for grabs to probably determine the party's presidential nominee. Whatever happens and who ever gets the ticket, we hope they will practice what they have preached all along, that is, in the event any of the democratic nominee wins the presidency.

For Obama, "yes, we can!"

"So, yo, go out there and vote, dawg!!!"