French was my first language, but when my kindergarten teacher threatened to hold me back because of my limited English, my Mom, determined her own kids would not be ridiculed the way she was, and my Dad decided on raising their kids English-only, and to this day, my siblings blame me for the fact they cannot speak French.
What had sparked my interest in my Franco-American roots was an undergraduate college requirement to attend a campus lecture by a then unknown black American author. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I soon found myself spellbound by his obsession for identity, tracing his family tree back to its slavery genesis in America--and then that catharsis, the Eureka moment, when the oral historian of an African tribe spoke the name 'Kunta Kinte'. The speaker, of course, was Alex Haley, and his upcoming book/mini-series, Roots, would become an American television and cultural phenomenon.
Other Americans may not realize it, but Franco-Americans have faced their own sets of issues. Marie Tessier writes the following:
"In the United States, the French language was a target of hate groups and repressive authorities throughout the 20th century. The Ku Klux Klan, numbering more than 100,000 in the 1920s, burned crosses to intimidate Franco-Americans in Maine.
"Until recent decades, children were beaten for speaking French in school, Francos were routinely insulted and kept in the lowest-paying jobs, and generations were raised on the notion that to be French was to be stupid."
I have been aware of issues in the African-American urban community since childhood. While Dad was transitioning military assignments and making arrangements for us, I attended Notre Dame Elementary School in Fall River. Our class, as part of a social justice project, adopted a needy black family in Washington DC. We would regularly send care packages reflecting various family preferences, sizes, etc., for food, clothes and other items. However, even then I became somewhat skeptical when the Roman Catholic sister told us that the black father's favorite brand of cigarettes was Pall Mall. Why in the world were we subsidizing a discretionary purchase, one, in fact, dangerous to one's health?
Still, I was moved by the heart-wrenching realization that millions of fellow citizens did not have a realistic shot of achieving the American dream: fatherless families; failed public school systems; high school dropout rates; dangerous, drug-ridden neighborhoods; large numbers of young black men in prison. The very first single I ever purchased with my own money was Elvis Presley's cover of the Mac Davis song, "In the Ghetto".
One sometimes wonders in these neighborhoods if role models go beyond sports and entertainment figures. People like the wonderful, personable Dr. Annie Brown, whom had overcome humble origins to head the MIS department at Grambling State University when I visited in the spring of 1994; competent professional DBA's whom I mentored as a senior principal at Oracle Consulting in 1998 and whom had subsequently served as job references; my EPA client administrator from Sumter, SC (my Dad was once stationed at nearby Shaw AFB) during my first DBA gig at the regional lab in downtown Chicago; the key account executive I worked with during my last year at Market Knowledge. All of whom who were/are well-qualified, earned their own way for everything they achieved in professional success, and had a strong work ethic, a positive attitude, and congenial personalities.
I was/am such an admirer of Jack Kemp, former pro quarterback, Congressman, Housing Secretary, and the Vice Presidential candidate for former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, whom championed things like enterprise free zones and alternatives to public housing where people have ownership interests in their own homes. Unfortunately, American voters reelected the Narcissist, whom had engaged in a pattern of behavior that would have resulted in his termination for cause under sexual harassment policies of most major corporations. (The Senate Democrats paid lip service to their feminist constituents and ignored material evidence of perjury and obstruction of justice; all is forgiven, even "boys-will-be-boys" behavior, provided you accommodate the politically correct position on abortion. What a role model for responsible, self-respecting American young men!)
The GOP is the party of emancipation; it also had allied itself with liberals to help pass landmark civil rights legislation over the objections of Democratic segregationists. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King had registered as a Republican in the late 1950's. Yet we soon saw a massive movement in favor of the Democrats promoting the welfare state, hiring quotas, preferential contract set-asides, and ineffective, impersonal, paternalistic government bureaucratic "solutions" whereby one's concern for the underprivileged is not objectively quantified in terms of resulting higher basic knowledge and skills and/or graduation rates, post-high school education/training rate, small business starts and growth, home ownership ratios, decreased crime/drug statistics, etc., but in terms of whether you politically support throwing money down the rathole of dysfunctional, counterproductive programs and policies.
The end result is that American blacks, over the past several election cycles, have supported the national Democrats in near unanimous percentages of 90% or so. This level of groupthink in support of Big Government solutions which have not and never will work astounds me. The Democrats generally block access to alternatives to ineffective public education in urban areas, which is really key to breaking the circle of poverty. The Democrats are more likely to nominate judges whom undermine traditional Christian values, e.g., the definition of marriage, abortion, etc.
I have no doubt that the majority of American blacks take pride that the son of a Kenyan goat herder represents and identifies with their rich cultural heritage, even though he did not grow up in a traditional black American household or neighborhood. Still, one has to wonder if that faith is somewhat misguided and perhaps self-defeating; here we have a 3-year Illinois senator--whom has spent most of the last 2 of those years running for President full-time--with no trademark policy expertise, no major legislative accomplishments that bear on any concrete issue affecting black American lives, no administrative or business experience of any kind, college degrees from Columbia and Harvard (colleges beyond the realistic dreams of most blacks), someone whom lives in a $1.65M mansion in an upscale neighborhood that few blacks, beyond celebrity sports stars or entertainers, can afford... The only thing that distinguishes Barack Obama is his oratorical skills, but little of substance beyond the mantra "change". When you have distinguished Congressmen of color such as Elijah Cummings, John Lewis, and Charlie Rangel or highly qualified and experienced administrators such as General Colin Powell and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is it really in the best interests of black America to see in the White House someone not really up to the job and demonstrably less qualified and accomplished than other experienced black leaders? If he fails, how will that affect the aspirations of more qualified black candidates in the future? If he doesn't get elected, can one really attribute the loss of a 3-year senator with no administrative experience or legislative accomplishments to racism? I can tell you right now I would seriously consider voting for General Colin Powell for President, but I could never, in good conscience, vote for Barack Obama.
