Marcel Friday

EDITORIAL: Farewell, Barack!

Originally posted on HipHopDX 1/21/2017

Dear President Obama,

As a wide-eyed 24-year-old black man in the Metro Detroit area, I walked into my local polling place wearing my “Fuck Joe The Plumber” t-shirt in 2008 to cast my vote. For the first time in my life, I had the opportunity to participate in an American government system I never felt represented me until you shook my foundation. Like many of my contemporaries, I’ve never seen a government that I felt represented me let alone look like me. Sure, I can remember parts of Coleman A. Young’s 20 years as Detroit’s Mayor and Dennis Archer’s stint as Mayor on a local level. But a black man as President? That was unfathomable.