Barack Went Straight to College

Tomorrow morning I'll be attending my four year-old's Pre-K graduation. "T" is super excited about the ceremony, especially since he thinks college comes next. You see, although he really likes school, he positively loathes homework.

So why the excitement about college? Well, "T" somehow remembered that I told him that you don't get homework everyday at college. So he's decided he's going there next. Forget about K-12!

I tried to be rational with his stubborn, "artistic" temperament. "No, honey, next you go to kindergarten like all the other big boys."

His response? "Nooo! Barack Obama went to college when he was four, so I can too!"

"Uh, no, he didn't."

"Yes he did! He DID go to college when he was four!"

We went back-and-forth before we agreed to play paper-rock-scissors to settle the debate. Fortunately I've noticed that my son always puts the scissors first, so I put out the rock to break them. He was SO mad that he fell out in the floor and started having a fit! Whatever. I ignored him till he shook his fist in defiance.

"Fine then! But I'm still going to college like Barack Obama!"

"OK, that's good. Of course you're going to college."

Our little "argument" was over but it got me thinking about how, for my sons, these days, everything is about Barack Obama.

Do you think Barack Obama ever had pet silkworms?
Is Barack Obama an omnivore, carnivore or herbivore?
Does Barack Obama play with Legos?

Last night my eldest was checking himself out in the bathroom mirror. As I walked by, I heard him say to his reflection, "What do you command, President Obama?"

He was totally pretending he was Obama!

I don't know if all of us who are parents fully realize how potentially having a black President is going to impact our children. I don't think I ever saw even a TV black president as a child, but gosh, my kids might have the real thing. It matters to see a face that looks like theirs up there. It definitely does.

I know for every person that says that Obama can help instill a sense of confidence and pride in black children, there's someone that says that none of that matters if black folks as individuals don't get their acts together and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. I'd say people of all colors need to get themselves together and we can't do it in isolation. We need each other.

I don't think Obama's going to be an instant panacea for anything, and he shouldn't have to be. If he gets elected, America still has a tough road ahead as far as true racial unity, let alone gas prices, war, healthcare and education. But gosh, it does something special to my heart to see my sons admiring him and developing this whole superhero-like mythology about him. It's especially nice because most of the popular culture heroes that are put in front of them are not black males. Ironman, Batman, Indiana Jones, The Hulk --none of them look like my sons. They play with Batman action figures but I'll never see them look in the mirror and say, "Gee, I look just like Bruce Wayne!"

It's not just black kids either. Obama also does something for children of all colors. He challenges some of the subconscious, less overt stereotypes that our children, regardless of background, have learned about black men. His wife, Michelle Obama likewise challenges beliefs about who black women are and what we're about.

Tomorrow when my son walks across that stage to get his little Pre-K diploma, I know he's still going to be thinking that Obama went straight to college. And really, knowing I have a child who believes a black man can go from Pre-K to college is alright with me.