Mumia: The meaning of Obama's Victory

The meanings of victory.
The count has been called, and Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. has become the forty-fourth president of United States of America. But in truth, history will record him as number one, the first African American president. It is undeniable that this is a singular political achievement, a work of impressive political skill, and, we must admit, a gift of the political gods.


Among friends, in the privacy of a prison visiting room, I’ve often made the following half-joke: Obama wins handsomely, and in his acceptance speech, flush with victory, loaded with political capital, he would open by saying, “My fellow Americans, first and foremost, I want to thank the one person who made my election possible, if not inevitable: George W. Bush.” I always get a laugh, for, like all good jokes, the truth makes it happen. And the truth is, without the blunders of Bush, Obama would have been an also-ran. His fundamental issue, what set him apart from the rest of the Democratic pack, was his early opposition to the Iraq war. That gave him a wind that carried him far and long beyond his competitors, who were, for the most part, half-hearted war supporters, or worse, people who supported the war only because to not do so would have harmed their political careers. Or so they thought. That wind has carried him to the Oval Office, the grandest prize in US politics.


But what does it mean? We cannot deny its symbolic value. In millions of black homes, his picture will be placed on walls beside Martin, John F. Kennedy and a pale painting of Jesus. I bet that quite a few African homes, especially in Kenya, will also boast his smiling visage. But beyond symbol is substance. And substantively, some scholars have defined Obama as little different from his predecessors. Yet symbols are powerful things. Sometimes they have a life all their own. They may come to mean something more than first intended. History has been made. We shall see what kind of history it will be.


From death row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.