rock the vote, pt. II

In my English class, "The Weary Blues: Mourning in African American culture", we discussed the tradition of the messianic figure in black politics, aka the Chosen One. And I'm not talking about Neo. Nat Turner, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., most of our black political leaders have died in the line of duty. And now as we move closer to primary season and the fight for votes gets even more heated among the Democratic hopefuls, a lot of black folk have been asking themselves - does a vote for Barack mean the kiss of death, literally?
When the news constantly purports stories that black people aren't coming out in droves for Obama, they are missing a large piece of the story. It isn't that we're crazy and hard to please (well...), its more complicated than that. Many of us still think of Clinton as our brother from another mother, so we're down for the next best thing - Hillary. And we are also sending a message to his campaign that he has to earn our votes, meaning our blackness doesn't necessitate pulling the lever for him. Most importantly, many of the older generation are legitimately concerned for his physical well being. We have a 400 year history with crazy racist zealots, hankering for some Negro blood. But I hope we don vote based on our fears, but rather on our findings of the candidate most willing to fight for our needs. We have to stop worrying about the racist factions within our nation and worry about ourselves.
In the meantime, I'll be zipping up my fly BaRack the Vote hoodie, and hitting the streets in support of my legislative homie.