Who dares say he's wrong?
I noticed this headline peeking out at me from the "U.S. National News" section on my MyYahoo! page: Powell Recalls King's Efforts for Blacks. This article mentions that Colin Powell is currently the U.S. Secretary of State, and once served as the nation's senior uniformed military officer as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And it mentions that this man is black. But what I find significant is that neither reference alludes to the fact that he was the first "person of color" to ever do so - in fact it doesn't even hint that there's anything unusual about the man's high office or exemplary resumé.
A cynic might point out that making note of these achievements would require one to think about the two Presidential Administrations that placed a black man into such high positions, and the political party of those Administrations. The same cynic might argue this would also lead to similar questions regarding Clarence Thomas, Condaleeza Rice, Rodney Paige, and Alphonso Jackson, who together represent the most significant assemblage of blacks in appointed offices in American history.
I would contend however, that the reason why the "achievement" of appointing and retaining a new record number of blacks in high office is not in print is because making note of the fact runs the risk of diminishing it. We must lead not by word, but by example. We must not reduce any man to a token on account of his religion, his ethnicity, his race - or his color. We will achieve The Dream when all thought of "firsts" is but a distant memory, and a portrait of the President and his Cabinet engenders but once thought in the nation's conscience:
Here is a collection of people of the finest character America has to offer.
