The Washington Informer: Opinions/Editorials

“Well, we know that,” I replied. “I mean, we should expect to see the equivalent of him in a hotel room with a hooker and a pipe.”

I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon. I expected a few more months of unprecedented jubilation. That might be enough time for our hope to take root even as our inspiration reaches for the sky. That might be enough time to become so rooted that the strongest winds wouldn’t topple us.

Sunday morning, I was at first delighted by the New York Times’ obvious support for Obama, then a bit tickled to find the headline, “Obama’s Kenyan Roots.” Ah, here we go, I thought.

Sure enough, one of the Times’ columnists in Kenya tracked down Obama’s step-grandmother, Mama Sarah, and his cousins. Mama Sarah, who lives in a hut but has a cell phone, according to the article, initially offered the writer an interview then changed her mind after someone told her she should make folks pay to talk to her.

The writer didn’t pay, he claims, though he understood her request considering the abject poverty he witnessed. (A story loses its credibility when it’s based on purchased information.)

The column was interesting, noting language barriers within the Obama family, and noting the Kenyan nation split in its support for Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton. I told my dear friend about Obama’s grandma shakin’ folks down, noting that her home has become a stop on the tour route.

“I ain’t mad at her,” my friend said. “It’s about time somebody’s making them pay. They go over there and take whatever they want. She should make them pay.”

The image of an old woman living in a hut with possibly dirt floors stretching her hands to demand pay for talking about her grandson was at once amusing and not.

Images shape our opinions don’t they?

Sunday morning preacher-professor Michael Eric Dyson, in his sermon broadcast from Howard University’s Rankin Chapel, conjured up another image in his message on conquering kingdoms. He referenced Hebrews 11:32-34, “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.”

By Monday evening, it seemed the Marion Barry break-down would begin. Monday morning the Chicago Tribune published an article quoting Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan endorsing Obama during Farrakhan’s annual Savior’s Day address.

Farrakhan’s unsolicited endorsement is not exactly newsworthy this week since Farrakhan expressed his support months ago and Obama quickly asserted his opposition to Farrakhan’s messages of separatism and anti-semitism. But bloggers quickly picked up on the Trib’s story and that was only the beginning.

By evening, network news broadcast photos of Obama in a turban accepting, a white African wrap, appearing to accept a long slim object from a grandfatherly figure. Nobody’s voting for a tall tan man in a turban, I thought. This was the proverbial Barry with a crack pipe and a woman in a hotel room. If internet chatter was any indication, this image might gain wind and topple a promising campaign against a once inevitable Democratic nominee.

Sen. Clinton assured Katie Couric back in November that she would be the Democratic nominee. In January, she told George Stephanopoulus it would all be over after Super Tuesday. Now, with 11 straight primary defeats and the most stubborn optimist holding out hope that she can make a comeback by winning Texas and Ohio next week, we get the image of Obama in the likeness of Osama.

Of course the images are technically quite different. Barry was a grown man and nobody put the pipe in his hands. Obama was, according to a Washington Post article which dismissed the photo as silly and suspicious, allowed the photo to be taken in 2006 when he was on tour in Africa. But images remain in our conscious long after we’ve reasoned about the validity of them.

We reasoned that the government set Barry up because he was helping too many Black folks, opening the District’s government agencies to young men and women who couldn’t get hired by government before, giving property tax breaks to the elderly who’d doggedly maintained their neighborhoods, and giving summer jobs to youth. We argued that his demise was his own fault because knowing the Big Bad Government is after you should compel you to be perfect beyond reality – somehow.

Now, we see Obama burrowing ahead. He warns in his speech he has not been perfect, and rather than distancing himself from Farrakhan, his campaign sent e-mails Tuesday morning launching a “One Million for Change Canvass.”

They’re asking volunteers in Ohio to knock on one million doors before the Ohio primary on March 4. Clearly, they’re not heeding calls to distance this candidate from the man best known for an astounding Million Man March. In the tradition of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. they’re, “Keeping the faith, baby.” In the tradition of Jesses Jackson they’re “Keeping Hope Alive.”

I’m excited just to witness it. Will the images of him surrounded by a diverse crowd waving signs of hope and change last? It’s quite possible.

Sonsyrea Tate is managing editor of The Washington Informer and author of “Little X: Growing up in the Nation of Islam,” and “Do Me Twice: My Life After Islam.” She can be reached at 202-561-4100 or by e-mail at state@washingtoninformer.com.