Friday, November 14, 2008

Question

Reflecting on one of the most absurd, yet accepted, post-election refrains: Were there really parents out there telling their children that they shouldn't bother aspiring to be president?

3 comments:

Knockout Ed said...

I think the answer is yes but that's not really the point of this issues to me though. To me it's that your kid can't honestly call bullshit on you if & when you tell them that.

blackink said...

If feel you, Ed, but I never thought - as a kid myself - that race would be one of the factors to prevent me from becoming president.

Certainly, a black man ever becoming the president of the U.S. seemed improbable. But for any one person, it's a virtually impossible goal anyway. Given the chances, even white parents would be better off telling their kid to aim for more realistic goals.

But that's not the point, eh? It's to dream that impossible dream. And I dreamed it anyway. And my parents would never have discouraged me. And that's the way it should be when it comes to kids and their dreams.

Knockout Ed said...

It's not overtly a race thing but I bet a non-trivial amount of non-white kids before Obama would take a look at all the the presidents we've had, see a sea of rich white men & think to themselves forget it. There are also a lot of Black folk who didn't think that "they" would "let Obama win".

Parents should encourage their kids dreams within reason but there are a lot of shitty parents out there. I say within reason because I don't want people (specifically Black folk) to encourage their kids to do something at the expense of something more realistic. Say pushing them to play B-ball while they are slacking their homework, meanwhile there is a much, much better chance of that kid becoming a doctor or lawyer than him becomign an NBA player.