Photo Credit: Karl-Ludwig G. Poggemann
As a young black man, having a president that looks like me gives me a real feeling of empowerment. But now that President Obama’s term is almost over, I’m beginning to get scared.
I was nine years old when Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States. Back then I didn’t realized how big of a deal it was, but my mom was really excited. For her, it was proof that her young, black son, raised by a single mom, could do something better in life.
Now I’m 15, and I get how significant it is that, for the past eight years, the most important person in the world has looked like me. But even with a black president, there have been still so many incidents of racial injustice. As a black teenager, I walk around with fear that I might be targeted by the police.
It took a black president for us to have a conversation about race. What will we do without one?
Now Donald Trump, a documented racist, has been elected president. And I have to ask, how will the treatment of black people be without our black leader?