Why is Black such a black word?

I wonder why I should have been so moved by the election of a President of a nation which has brazenly upset the world order, is generally snobbish, looks down on other nations, is a declared bully and, above all, is Rs 60,000 away from me on airfare!

But, when 47-year-old Barack Hussain Obama was elected the first ever Black President of the USA, I was surprised to deal with moist eyes, lumps in my throat and a stranger than strange sense of overwhelming achievement. Of course, friends blew off my miscast emotions, mocking my 'begani shaadi mein Abdullah diwana' syndrome and accusing me of getting old faster than a Formula One drive.

May be, but Obama's ascendancy to the world's most crucial office was one of those historical moments that do not come by easily. Imagine a white America, with a dogged racist history which exists even today, actually surpassing the colour hurdle and preferring a Black man over a White woman. Imagine, one Black man having a dream in a long gone century and another Black man making it reality in a world that is not just polarised but also more rigid than it ever was. Imagine a Black man transcending his own colour obstacles to launch a campaign surpassing the race issue altogether.

Obviously, this was more than just an election. The tears in the eyes of the Oprah Winfreys and the Jesse Jacksons said it all as they also made you believe: "Yes we can."

But can we really? Even today there is a prejudice against the colour black. No newspaper carried a headline punning on black or highlighting the fact that a Black man was President. My Editor was horrified that I even suggested "Black House" as a headline! Of course, I would call that a positive prejudice but the very fact that we avoid using the word 'black' is a big prejudice in itself, isn't it?

Come to think of it, we are all so racist in our own little ways and we don't even realise it.

Just the other day, my four-year-old nephew was playing carrom board and asked me why do black coins carry 10 points and white ones get 20? I could not explain to him that it was all about this colour prejudice that generation after generation has been brought up on -- in all religions and all aspects.

Consider this: Black is one colour that is taboo in Indian marriages; it is the colour of death and mourning in the Western world; the devil wears black, bad mood is black, a day gone wrong is black, suicide bombers wear black.

Meaning to say, most things black are negative and we collectively rejoice at being benign when we insist otherwise and say 'black is beautiful!'

Coming back to America and Obama, that nation had, till now, only toyed with the idea of a Black President in Hollywood movies, much like it toys with the idea of alien life on its big screen.

Till now America has had only Black stereotypes -- jazz singers, actors, athletes, basketball players, some moneybags and, of course, an entire lot of the ghettoed trouble makers, the druggies, the thugs, the goons, the gangs and the dons.

Under the circumstances, to have a Black President is, as an American would say typically, "awesome!". Which brings you to Barack Obama's awesome task ahead of him. His Chicago speech suggested he is in the know of the treacherous mountains he has to climb, the work he has to put in to be accepted not as a one-time blunder but an all-time wonder, the juggling he has to do to correct the army of wrongs America has done on to others in the name of terror, its follies in Iraq, its failures in Afghanistan and its new-to-its-blood worry -- a state of poverty.

Indeed, Obama will be quite a man if he manages to fulfil the huge Black expectations and an equally huge White prejudice.

Published November 9, 2008, http://www.dailypioneer.com/133122/Why-is-Black-such-a-black-word.html