This is my first post and it's not a coincidence that am launching this blog on the day when a man of colour becomes leader of the free world. Though Barack Obama's remarkable achievement has prompted millions of column inches in newspapers around the world and hours of television commentary, there has been little discussion given as to how his presence has affected the everyday lives of ordinary people. On this week's Any Questions? on Radio 4, Christopher Hitchens commented that seeing Obama and his family as the First Family-to-be had become 'perfectly natural'. As a person of colour I can't disagree more. I am still pinching myself that this previously unimaginable event has actually happened in my lifetime. Tonight when I watch his inauguration I know I will have tears in my eyes.
It is a day of great hope and I don't mind, just for once, taking a holiday from cynicism. My personal hope is that Obama will symbolise the realisation of Martin Luther King's hope that, finally, a man will be judged on the content of his character, and not the colour of his skin (and make that women too!). For my family and friends I hope that this means we will finally be able to be ourselves, mixed in colour and character, and not be forced to choose between one or another, to deny our true multiplicity in order to find a place where we can really belong.
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