The dust has finally settled and Barack Obama is officially the 44th President of the United States. People all around the world have been waiting for this historic moment, especially the hip-hop community. President Obama (that feels good to say! lol.) has had the support of the hip-hop community since the early stages of his campaign. His movement and theme of CHANGE has been infused into hip-hop culture. It can be seen throughout the country how the hip-hop community embraced and supported his campaign. You hear his name in songs, see his name and face on t-shirts, jeans, shoes, hats, earrings, chains, party flyers, cell phones, ipods (you get the point). All throughout the campaign Obama spoke about CHANGE so that he is in office is hip-hop going to CHANGE? The hip-hop community is often criticized for promoting sex, violence, disrespecting women and drugs. The image of Barack Obama and his family is the complete opposite of all those things I just mentioned. The leader of the free world is an educated Black man married to an educated black woman and are raising their children “together”. Now that the hip-hop community has a model to look to will they CHANGE? Will men treat women as equals? be faithful to them? take care of their children? provide a positive environment for their families and communities? Will women be responsible mothers? stop degrading themselves? not present themselves as objects? be faithful? be confident in their abilities?
These are all questions that remain to be answered. I believe that President Obama and his family will influence many people to be more responsible and set positive examples for those around them but we all know that there are some things that will never CHANGE…

I work in the Camp creek marketplace which is located in East Point, GA. One morning I was headed to BJ’s to put gas in my car. As I’m making the turn to BJ’s my car stops, I tried to crank it, but it was obvious that my car was out of gas. If you are familiar with the Camp Creek marketplace you know that BJ’s is directly across from the East Point police precinct. So my car is directly across from the police precinct. It’s probably about 9:30 in the morning so the shopping center isn’t busy at all. A police officer pulls up and asks “what’s going on?”. I tell him about my situation and he tells me that he will talk to the other officers about helping to push my car. As I’m waiting I hear the other officers outside talking about my situation. Basically they were saying they weren’t going to help me. The first officer finally comes back and he proceeds to tell me “that pushing the car wasn’t going to work and that if I didn’t move my car it would be towed. So I guess five police officers can’t push a car 50 feet? After walking to the gas station, I finally get back to my job about 30 min later. As I’m walking back into my job I see the police officers behind my store playing around on one of those “segways” (waste of time and money). I guess thats why they couldn’t help me. They were too “busy” making my community “safe”. Is there where my tax dollars go? Now I do take full responsibility for not having enough gas in my car. But I thought it was their job to “serve” and “protect” especially when they have nothing else to do. Maybe my expectations are too high or maybe theirs are just that low. You be the judge.