Tag: Obama

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The Joy of it all

Joy-Ann-Reid

Yesterday I was interviewed by Joy-Ann Reid, the managing editor of TheGrio.com and an on-air contributor on MSNBC. Ms. Reid is also a political columnist for the Miami Herald and editor of the political blog, The Reid Report. She is currently writing a book on the Clinton and Obama administrations and wanted to talk to me about critiques and observations of the Obama presidency that I posted on my website (www.JamesRichardson.net).  It appears she was intrigued by my comments on the impact of the Obama presidency and how he is viewed in the Black Community. Since I don’t consider myself  overly political I wasn’t sure of what I was going to add to the conversation. In truth I am far more comfortable talking about mobile apps and multimedia than about government policies. With that said, I agreed to an interview. I think it went okay. I guess I’ll see.

 

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We cut heads!

The Pres

I came across this picture of President Obama recently and it made me think.  The worst thing about having a shaved head is……. I miss going to the barbershop.  The last time I went to a barbershop was probably close to 20 years ago. I started shaving my head right around the time that my wife and I started dating.

The barbershop I used to go to was the old Jerry’s Den on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. It was always packed because everyone was waiting for the one or two barbers that were guaranteed to give you a good cut. Most people would rather wait and hour or two to make sure you got a barber that didn’t give you a jacked up cut.

The main thing I miss about the barbershop is the Continue reading “We cut heads!”

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Thoughts on Black History Month

Black History Month is here again and I find myself reflecting on how things have changed in just a few short years. For example, the story behind the above picture is that a little Black child visited the White House wanted to know if Obama’s hair “felt like his”, so the president obliged and let him see for himself. This brought to mind an exchange that my son and I had during the last primary season in 2008, before Obama was elected.

I took my son with me to vote, and as we were in the booth, he asked if he could grow up to become President one day. Now as a Black father this was one of those pivotal moments where you have to make a decision whether to tell him the truth about the world as you believe it, or allow them to remain innocent for awhile longer by painting them a picture of how the world should be. I try to always be truthful with my children, but in this moment I paused and decided to tell him how I hoped the future would look. “Yes, you can become the President one day”.

I just never thought it would happen in my lifetime.

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I am not very political….

but I have to admit that the prospect of a Black President has me more than a little intrigued. I find myself watching the evening news channels, reading the internet blog sites, and getting up early to view the Sunday morning talk shows. I think that my interest has been sparked largely because I never truly believed that there would be a Black Commander-in-Chief in my lifetime. I am still not sure that it will really happen, but for the first time in years am hopeful that true change may be possible.

I guess only time will tell.