A Litmus Test

It was the morning of November4, 2008, and I must admit that was quite excited. Being the progeny of African slaves brought to the New World, particularly to Barbados, Jamaica, and Panama, I have been Black all my life and I have enjoyed it just as long. So, as this was the day that I would vote for Barak Obama as President of the United States, I must say I felt like I might take off running with glee. I walked up the the moderately long line of voters that had formed outside the polling place. A white gentleman came up behind me, nice enough fellow, holding his cup of gourmet coffee and his Onion newspaper. I wasn't reading a thing at all. I had on a t-shirt, emblazoned with my sorority's letters, the pink and green fresh and clean like I like it.
I could tell he wanted to say something to me, but I didn't feel like talking, didn't want the rhetoric to begin so soon. I guess he couldn't take it any more, so he began.
"What does 'AKA' stand for?"
"It's my sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Incorporated," I replied.
"That's wonderful! I've heard of it." He waited, giving me a chance to respond. I didn't. It was nothing personal. I honestly just didn't feel like talking.
He turned around, watching the line of waiting voters and smiled. It was coming, I could feel it.
"So, this is a great day," he said. Ooh! There it was. "I'm just so excited about the direction this country is taking."
I didn't bother to tell him about the four hundred years of work Black people in this country have been making, risking their lives, dying in many cases, striving for a better day they would never see. I didn't bother t talk about the fact that Martin Luther King and Malcolm X talked truths year ago, had lived and died, and racism is still the second principle, behind classism, in this country. I didn't even bother to remind him of the outrage the media expressed when Rev. Jeremiah Wright said what he said about this country's foundation. The truth about that was, if anyone had bothered to ask Black people what they thought about Wright's comments, they all would have said, 'He hasn't lied yet!'
I just waited for him to continue. And he did.
"I am just so excited about finally having a Black president.
Ha! I thought. I can't let this pass!
"What first Black president," I asked. " Don't you know we've had six already?"
What do you mean, was his incredulous reply.
"Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Calvin Coolidge, , Warren G. Harding, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were Black. I mean look at their pictures. Can't you tell?"
"No, I can't actually. They look like anybody in my family, and we're not Black."
"Dr. Auset Bakuhfu wrote a book about it. He's an anthropologist. I'ts common knowledge among many Black people in America." I kept nodding, because I don't think he wanted to believe me. I had to go for the jugular. "Kind of makes you wonder what roots are strengthening your family tree, doesn't it?"
He turned back to his Onion and guzzled his coffee.