Yes We Can: The True Genius of America

1964: Malcolm X gives a speech in which he claims that, since he is a black man in America, he cannot even consider himself an American based on how he is treated. 

2008: A mere forty-four years later, a black man is elected as President of the United States.

Barack Obama Victory Speech, Grant Park, Chicago

November 2008

We all remember where we were on November 4th, 2008, when Barack Obama made history as the first black man ever elected to be President of the United States. I remember watching the election results with my family at home, elated at the fact that we had witnessed history and proud of how far our country had come. I stayed up to watch the speech, and was so moved by its theme of America's ability to change, told through the life of 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper, a lady who had lived through all of America's hardships and heartache, maintaining a hope and knowledge that things could change that allowed her to vote on a touch screen for the first black man as president. This theme is achieved by a reliance on allusion to past American history and reference to leaders who had come before us to enact change. Even in times where it seemed as if Uncle Sam would remain corrupted, as he was throughout the 1960s Civil Rights Movement according to Malcolm X, and that America would not find its way out of darkness, it proved time and time again that it could. As Obama famously said, "That's the true genius of America, that America can change. Our union can be perfected."

And after reading Malcolm X's "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech, I was able to fully understand this "true genius of America" Obama referred to on that brisk Autumn night. Reading the speech, I was outraged, outraged at how mistreated and misrepresented blacks at the time were by those in the government and Congress who claimed they would help them. I was hurt, hurt by how I too agreed with Malcolm X's opinion that Uncle Sam, a seemingly innocent and patriotic figure, had blood on his hands, that he wasn't offering an American dream, but an American nightmare. But most of all, I was inspired. Inspired by the strength Malcolm X possessed; that even in the face of so much adversity and so much disappointment, he kept the hope that America could one day be a nation that accepted all races. He, just as the first black man elected president said forty years later, even in times that he was told he couldn't, "pressed on with that American creed: 'Yes we can.'"

Barack Obama's "Yes we can" slogan refers to the constant efforts of
leaders who have come before, such as Malcolm X.
Found here.

Malcolm X argued for the urgent need to bring about change -- that it was 1964; no one could wait any longer for change. He argued for this change through the use of the ballot or the bullet. The ballot, he said, was the most effective ways of bringing about freedom. Voting, and voicing one's opinion, are the most important means of participating in a democracy, something that Malcolm X introduced and something that we as citizens must all remember. Because of the ballot, our freedom to vote and say what we want to say, Malcolm X reminded his followers that they could change history. And they did.

It is these people that Obama refers to when he credits the beauty of America: it is the people who stand up for what is right, who do not give up in face of adversity, and who recognize that if they rely on the ballot, and their own determination to enact change, our country can and will move forward. 

The 1960's was one of our country's darkest decades, in which basic human (as Malcolm X calls them) rights were denied and people were killed just for the color of their skin. Even in these darkest of days, Malcolm X and others like him found the strength to stand up and fight for what they knew to be right, using their words to inspire others to join them and using the ballot to enact change. The genius of America is this: people recognize the ability of our country to change, and, despite adversity, they act on it, just as Malcolm X did. With the ballot, the basic American freedom that allows us all to have a voice, we all must recognize this fact that we all have the ability to change something, maybe even the world.

Reading Malcolm X's speech was eyeopening in so many regards. That November night when Barack Obama was elected, I obviously recognized the significance of his being elected, as well as the history that was made. But, I can say that after reading Malcolm X's speech, I now understand and appreciate so much better the beauty of our country. Only a mere forty-four years after a black man claimed, with just reason, that he did not even consider himself an American, a black man sits in the Oval Office as our commander-in-chief.