400 Years of Change

"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."

King Whitney Jr.

Wow how far we have come. First let me make my position clear. This is not a post or blog of racism nor politics. I voted for McCain. Am I upset that a man who served our country so honorably lost? A little. Am I wondering what lies beneath our future? Absolutely. I serve our country in the United States Air Force so my political views and opinions sum up to this, the vote is over, the choice is made, I will gladly serve the new Commander-in-Chief.
So, change. Change We Need. Change was the theme for Obama and was a wise selection for his “motto”. This brings me to my history lesson on 400 years of change. Truth is what I am going to write about is actually a 400+ year progression from well before the founding of the United States.
400 years ago slavery was a way of life. There were other forms of forced labor known as indentured servants. If you owed a debt and did not pay your debt within the agreed upon time they would force you into manual labor. It was not slavery though. Once you worked off your debt, you are free. In slavery, you were property and never freed unless the owner signed off on your freedom.
In the 16 and 1700’s communities took on the debt of birthing children. It was not cheap then either. You weren’t expected as a parent to do it alone. If a woman was single and birthed a child out of wedlock it was so frowned upon so much that she was forced into manual labor to repay her debt to the community.
As time went on and more and more blacks were brought to the states, more laws came into effect preventing blacks from having sex with whites creating mulatto children. Black slave’s mulatto children inherited being enslaved as well. It became such a problem due to racism that they went to extreme measures to try and stop it from occurring. Legislation was written that if a mulatto child is born out of wedlock, then that child will be forced into labor for 30 years. Considering the fact that the life expectancy for a child not in slavery was 32-43 years, you are pretty much birthing a child in to slavery for his entire life just because you had sex with a white man or black man. Yes, it worked both ways. (Just to rule out the people who are upset about white men raping black women) White women had their share of fun too.
So change we need? 300 years ago Barack Obama would have been forced into slave labor just because his black father had sex with a white woman. I say we have changed a bit. I am grateful for that. I just pray this position which is now going to be held by a black man will make people pull their pants up, stop the dropout rate from going higher and higher, and keep teen pregnancy down. Not to mention black on black crimes. That’s the change we need and I pray people find their hope and belief in knowing the highest office in the world has been achieved by a black man.