November 4th, 2008, 10:53 pm.

I had watched the election like a hawk, this being the first presidential election I was eligible to vote in, when the announcement was made.

With 338 electorial votes, Barack Obama became President-elect.

But this is NOT about him being black. This is about him being mixed race.

When I was a child, I was picked on alot, because I too am mixed race.

I was called things like mutt, enigma, weirdo, and some of my bullies were adults! Yes, adults. People who should know better. My teachers laughed at me at Halloween, when I dressed up as the Disney Princess Belle. They insisted that only white girls could be princesses, not me.

But I danced in my costume anyway.

I would try and play double-dutch on the playground, but the other girls would trip me. They would laugh, saying that double-dutch was for black girls, not me.

But I tried, anyway.

I told my teacher I wanted to be president someday. She laughed at me, saying only white men could be president.

Barack Obama did it anyway.

This isn’t just a victory for blacks, this is a victory for everyone. For everyone who wanted a change. Every kid who was ever called Oreo, half-breed or mutt. Every boy and girl who was told they can’t, by someone obsessed with power. And every man, woman and child, who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with the song a preacher sang fresh in their minds: WE SHALL OVERCOME!!

And this is a victory, for my grandparents, whom were almost lynched, because they, a German immigrant and a black/mixed man from Chicago decided to allow my mother into this world. A victory for my great grandfather, who was one of the men who marched that day with Dr. King. A victory for his little brother and sister, who were once almost stoned to death by a group of whites, because they peered into a white school, looking for an education. My great gandfather and his brother died a long time ago, and his sister died in January, but I’m sure they were watching from on high November 4th, watching history being made.

But perhaps the most plentiful victors were the ones I saw on CNN.

When the announcement was made, in Chicago, a white man kissed his black girlfriend.

A black man hugged a white woman and their two mixed girls.

A hispanic girl and a black woman hugged each other. One spoke English, the other Spanish, but both could speak one languige, that of harmony.

The moment was certainly not lost on me, and as I wept, drinking in the moment, I reflected on how long it took this country to get to this point. How long it was before everyone had the same rights. And all I had seen my 22 years alive on this planet, waiting. I never thought I’d be alive the day a mixed person became my leader, but here I am.

And now I can smile. Knowing that for once, a presidential slogan is reality in motion, YES WE CAN.

The Rasslinkitty