Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
What Millennials can learn from the iconic Black queer poet and professor Nikki Giovanni
Quincy Jones—whom The New York Times called the “giant of American music”—writer, critic, and artist Lorraine O’Grady, poet and professor Nikki Giovanni, HIV activist and public servant A.
Cornelius Baker, each felled by time’s infinite reach. A post shared by Black AIDS Institute (@blackaids)For years, Millennials—of which I am one—have been called upon to take up the reins of the struggle, to refashion the movement in our image, and to propel it forward.
But we have not yet been able to answer the call fully. It’s not been for lack of effort or creativity, though. We’ve seen glimpses of progress: Barack Obama’s historic election, the global rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the #SayHerName campaign, and the legalization of marriage equality, to name just a few.Subscribe to Native Son’s newsletter for more news, information, and conversations about Black gay and queer everything.However, the larger context in which these victories have unfolded is a half-century of backlash against the gains made during the Civil Rights era.
As Sir Isaac Newton’s “Third Law of Motion” reminds us, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Historically, racist reactions to Black advancement have repeatedly stymied our efforts to transform isolated successes into sustained economic, political, and legislative power—power that could both protect our hard-won progress and propel us toward new victories.Millennials, specifically, have come of age in constant crisis.
