The psychological boost on African-Americans generated by the election of the nation’s first Black president may be tempered by hard economic times ahead, says Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, director of the Media Center of the Judge Baker Children’s Center and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Poussaint, also faculty associate dean for Student Affairs at Harvard Medical School, is co-author of Raising Black Children, with Dr. James Comer, of Lay My Burden Down, with Amy Alexander, and most recently, Come on People: On The Path From Victims to Victors, with Bill Cosby.
What did you make of the election? I thought it was a great historical leap forward for the United States, for African-Americans, for people from diverse backgrounds. I think Barack Obama accomplished an enormous feat. … It’s an enormous testimony to the possibilities of the United States. It also is an indication about how far we have come, perhaps a bit further than particularly African-Americans had imagined. Even those who thought he could win, they were not believing in the polls. They were quietly saying White Americans would never elect a Black man to be president of the United States. They felt that way up until election night. That’s why there was so much utter disbelief among African-Americans that were interviewed and those who were not African-American that he actually won.
What do you think the impact Obama’s election to the White House will have on the aspirations of Black children, and equally important, Black parents who set the foundation for their success?
I think it’s going to have a great impact. But the problem will be to capitalize on the inspiration that he’s providing, the imagery he’s providing, feeling better about ourselves because we’re represented in the highest office. But then you need parents and schools to do the concrete kinds of things that are necessary to help their children pursue an education, to achieve and to win. The inspiration will be from Obama in the sense that — you have to be in the game, you have to be ready to put forth the effort to have the opportunity to win and achieve and that you don’t quit. He did what many thought was ‘impossible.’ Many of these young people who feel like they don’t have much of a chance or families who feel that they don’t have much of a chance know that with effort and participation that that might make the major difference in children achieving or not achieving.
