Is America Ready for Another Black President?

By Micha Green, AFRO Washington, D.C. Editor, [email protected]

Former Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed on “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert that he’s seriously considering running for president in 2020- an announcement that received major cheers from the crowd.  Despite the support from Colbert’s audience, in a post-Obama, “Make America Great Again” era, which many argue has divided the nation, the question becomes: is the United States ready for another Black president?

In 2008 and 2012, former President Barack Obama won the nation over with hopeful rhetoric. Then in 2016 President Trump unapologetically flipped the switch from hopeful optimism and political correctness to inciting fear and sometimes awakening hate.  Obama era policies like the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, which championed opportunities for young immigrants, are now being phased out by a president who advocated for a zero-tolerance immigration policy.

Some of the same people who chanted “Yes We Can” are now leaving the Democratic Party for movements like “#WalkAway”, while some longtime Republicans, like political strategist Steve Schmidt, are so disgusted by Trump that they’re now backing Democrats.

So in two years will America be ready for a Black president?  Is a former Obama cabinet member going to be welcomed after four years of Trump and red “MAGA” hats which rapper Pusha-T compared to the hoods worn by the Ku Klux Klan?  Will America embrace a president of color who looks like some of the same people that come from nations that the current Head of State once referred to as “sh*thole countries”?

In the meantime, these questions don’t have to be immediately answered, as Holder hasn’t confirmed that he is indeed running for president.

“Yeah, I’m thinking about it,” Holder told Colbert when asked if he was throwing his hat in the ring in 2020. “And what I’ve said is that I’ll make a determination sometime early next year,” he said.

While he makes up his mind, Holder is working hard to uplift the Democratic Party.

“My focus, really, now is on 2018, the midterms and trying to make sure that Democrats take back the Senate, take back the House, and that we do well, importantly, at the state level,” Holder said.