Congratulations. Mr. Barack Obama remains the 44th president of these United States (snakes) of America, defeating the republican challenger Mitt Romney by significant margins. Where personally this occurrence holds no more significance than who was the 23rd president it very well may be the most significant election (save the election of 2008)in African-American history. If this is the case then we are compelled to ask why? Why is the election of a so-called Black man to the post of president of the United States (snakes) so important to Black people? Well since it is next to impossible to poll the somewhat 40 million people of African descent in this country I will attempt to scrutinize the question. I promise to be as unbiased as possible, although we truly understand there is no such thing. It is my assertion, through simple observation, that the importance of the president's reelection is purely symbolic. I would be an incompetent social scientist if I ignored the feelings of nostalgia and ultimate self worth the image of a Black first family gives to a people whose entire experience in this country has been one of struggling to prove to the ruling class (white-America) that we aren't only equal but are human. Lets remember, for those of us who choose to, until the 1960's legislation existed throughout America that classified Black people as non-human. Disguised as so called Jim Crow laws, the law of the land stated that Blacks had no rights that any white person was forced by law to honor or respect. That my friends is sub-human. A chicken or a cow bred for slaughter has no rights that a human being is forced to respect (of course this is a very western European doctrine all together). So seeing a so called Black man at the helm of the most "powerful" nation in the world would inevitably give us that high that comes with the idea of proving to our oppressors and ourselves that they and we were wrong; we aren't savages, we aren't ignorant and dumb, we do more than step and fetch. We can! Of course, yes we can! But this leaves room to formulate other questions: is that enough? Is getting emotionally high from a manicured image of ourselves enough? I say emphatically, how in the hell could it be enough! What does nostalgia do about our very real incarceration rates? What does nostalgia do about our ever increasing teenage pregnancy rates? In 2012 not only have our high school drop out rates steadily increased but now there is a significant elementary school drop out rate. In 2012 African- Americans possess less than 1% of the countries overall wealth, which is a number that is less than the amount we possessed in 1863 ( the official year that slavery ended ). In other words our status in this country remains the same. And no one not even our intoxicating 44th president of the United States (snakes) is doing anything about it. Well hell it isn't even part of the conversation. So as Black folks hoot and holler as if the Black Messiah has returned from the clouds in a blaze of glory, we will continue to die in the streets of Chicago, we will continue to be shot down like mad dogs in parking lots in Saginaw, Michigan. Our brothers, fathers, uncles, and sons will continue to populate the prison system in droves while their would be mates swell institutions of higher learning and wonder haplessly why over 70% of them remain single. No thing has changed and nothing will change for African American's in this country despite being able to see the first lady on the cover of magazines in your local supermarket check out line. We have moved no where. We are moving backward. This election and all others do nothing but disarm us. I almost rather Mitt Romney to have won maybe then we as Black people would have had a cause to rally around in unity. But alas Barack Obama won so we have at least four more years of complacency, four more years of believing we have finally made it to the promise land. I say live it up Black people 2016 is fast approaching and there will be no more Black American idols for you to hang your hopes on. The lesser of two evils may very well be a choice between a Nazi and The Emperor of the Dark side. We would have had our run and be told to take our place and shut the hell up like good old slaves, "Yess Massa you sho is right we done had our presi-dent." But ode to nostalgia. We all have felt it. Remember the O.J Simpson trial. We could care less if O.J. did it or not. Many of us Black people, believe he probably did do it. What we celebrated then is what we celebrate now, Black people finally catching a break, or at least appearing to catch a break. Well fast forward ten years from O.J. and you get Katrina, a reminder of our continual place in America. So i ask us where will we be ten years from now as a people? Will the jails be empty? Will poverty and disease be a thing of the past? I'm sure it won't be. So live the illusion my friends for a storm is brewing, one with a reality that bites so sharply it will leave marks upon us all. But in the mean time celebrate get it over with and get back to your plight, being Black in a White-man's world. Congrats to the Obamas! So sorry for us.