Dear Senator Obama,
I declared my support of your candidacy early, and proudly counted myself among those who lifted you to the top of the first fundraising tally. Having witnessed your keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, I could only be impressed by your brilliance. When your wife joined you on stage, I was impressed even further that she bore no physical resemblance to a trophy wife, and I sensed the prize was hidden inside of her. When you announced you planned to enter the 2008 presidential race, I was ecstatic. Reading your best-selling published works confirmed your intellect.
As a child of the 1960s and a pioneer, I applaud you. I am a graduate of Vassar College, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Yale University Orthopaedic Surgery residency training program. During those years, I participated in the take-over of Vassar’s Main Administration Building in 1969, and in 1980 became the first woman to complete orthopaedic surgery training at Yale and the first African American female orthopaedic surgeon in the United States.
Coming of age during that civil rights era taught me to use the necessary means to crash through barricades and open doors. The obstacles I faced due to my hue were far greater than those due to my gender.
I know what it took for you to succeed in climbing the Ivy League ladder, and to become the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. There are those who would have us believe that, as it relates to people of color, these honors are handed out to the undeserving. But from one pioneer to another, I know that you had to be better than the competition then, and you still have to be better now. The civil rights struggle continues.
As a person of color, I have been deeply disturbed by the political statements of those who seem to be under the illusion that the fight for civil rights is obsolete. Commentary from the media, including “Black” talk radio, has echoed the phrase, “Don’t vote for someone just because of the color of their skin.” Well, Hell, don’t vote against them for that reason either.
It’s amazing that 99.9% of this type of commentary comes from people who have colored skin, and it’s unfortunate that, included in these numbers, are those who have name recognition and are influential in the African American community.
Have we “progressed” so far that we now have the luxury of beating down our own in the interest of being “fair,” or have we regressed so far that the bottom of the crab barrel is as far as we can see? Have we lost our vision because we can not envision ourselves as presidential candidates, and therefore can not embrace you? Are we envious because you have trod the road that we dare not? If the answer is no, then how can we bring ourselves to repeatedly sound that discordant trumpet?
The voters in South Carolina seem to be an exception. You are strongly supported by that African American community, and you seem to be Black enough for them. May the voters in the South Carolina primary raise the consciousness of the nation and set an example of the power that unity can bring.
Claudia Thomas, M.D.
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