When I Grow Up

I guess you have to know this, first. So here's a blog I wrote a few months back when CA (where I'm registered to vote AND where I happened to be living at the time) had their Presidential Primary (among other things)... Here it is:
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When I was a kid and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would say, "President." I was 4 or 5. I didn't know what the job really entailed, but I figured there was time to learn. Like I said, I was like 5.

Anyway, I had the following conversation with several people, several times:

Some Adult: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Little Natalie:President.
Some Adult: Oh, Wow! You want to be the first Black (sometimes substitute for woman, or Black-woman) President?
Little Natalie: No, I want to be President.

I probably had this conversation less than 5 times before I changed my last answer to "Yes," and probably less than 10 times before I changed my first answer to, "Famous."

I knew I was being patronized and I didn't understand why these "grown-ups" thought that by the time I was old enough to run for the presidency,
No
Other
Black
or
Female
person
would have Possibly done so, successfully.

It changed who I was. It changed my dreams, my expectations of myself, changed how I viewed my place in the world, and taught me how other people see me and people like me.

Cut to: TODAY - Super Tuesday 2008
Right now, at this moment in history... My history, my Country's history...
It is apparent that either a Black man or a Woman WILL run for President of the United States. We'll soon have an idea of which person it'll be. And whether they win or lose the race, at LEAST until NOVEMBER, 2008 and POSSIBLY for many years there after...

somewhere, some grown-up won't so readily squash the spirit of a little Black, American girl by teaching her that her dreams are far-fetched simply because she is

a Black, American Girl.