My friends and I are selling shirts. They say Black President.
The drive behind these shirts was that we simply got excited about an idea: the idea that a black man can and may be elected president in this election. The BP crew is decidely, actively pro-Obama - we're donating a portion of the proceeds from every shirt to the Obama campaign. But, the shirt isn't just about getting one particular great candidate who happens to be part-African into office, and we don't subscribe to any kind of 90s affirmative action ethos that we should get the black guy in just because he's black.
Instead, we got psyched that such a thing as a black president is possible at all. That's what we're proud of, that's what we want to show the rest of the world is so damn great about the United States - in other words, it's making use of the "power of our example, not the example of our power" that Bill Clinton spoke of last night at the DNC.
The Black President shirt is just our way of helping to update the american promise for 2008, to acknowledge a possibility that civil rights leaders of the 20th century wouldn't have dreamt of. It's also our way of pointing out the unprecedented positive side effects to the radically open-source democracy that is the USA, where not only can barely-literate moron sons of former Presidents get elected, but so can blacks, women, anybody. Regardless of the November outcome, Obama's campaign has started to remind the world that we're also still capable of greatness. It's our way of saying "America: Don't Call It A Comeback."
In addition we've got a blog going for commentary and criticism on campaign media - lots of snarky, razor-sharp analysis of campaign ads and any other form of mediatized political gestures we feel are relevant. We invite you to check it out, post your comments, and buy a shirt.
Black President: think about it.
Official Black President
The BP Media Blog
