No More Excuses

In the weeks following the elections and especially after the Inauguration, I’ve read a lot of political forum posts as newspaper article comments online whose general sentiment was that with the ascendancy of President Barack Obama African-Americans and other minorities have no more excuses about being held back or marginalized in achieving their goals.

And you know what? They’re right.

President Obama should be an inspiration to minorities that with hard work and determination, one can overcome one’s socioeconomic circumstances to live out their dreams. So-called welfare queens and kings should not look to The Source and Slam for role models so much as Ebony, Essence, Jet and especially Black Enterprise.

On the other hand, it is also time for the old boy network to, paraphrasing President Reagan, “tear town this wall” and officially dismantle the remnants of the glass ceiling. President Obama’s success as well as the excitement over both Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Sarah Palin shows that the vast majority of Americans are comfortable with the idea of women and minorities in positions of power.

Of course, a gap in educational resources in poorer minority communities still exists. And there is a real shortage of qualified minorities for many occupations that should not be filled with marginal candidates. But these related issues should and hopefully will be given more attention by the current and future administrations.

In the meantime, there is no excuse to deny the vast majority women access to any career for which they can prove to be qualified. Perhaps the biggest sea change will be how families adjust responsibility when more women become the breadwinners. Ideally, “supermoms” will become an anachronism as their husbands are more socially accepted as primary caretakers and/or domestic engineers.