The now President-Elect Barack Obama has risen from the ashes of a long and arduous political battle to become America's first African American president.
We are exceedingly proud of our country yet we know that we have a long way to go in terms of improving ethnic relations. I prefer not to say race relations, because we belong to one race (the human race).
On November 4, 2008, celebrations were held all around the world to mark this historic occasion.
What makes this day special?
The irony of the situation is that Barack Obama exemplifies the lives of so many within the African Diaspora. Many Africans throughout the world are of mixed descent due to slavery. His rise to prominence has brought light to this fact and has opened an enlivened discourse on the subject of mixed heritage. Barack Obama born of a White mother and Black father, has become the most powerful man in the free world. I watched as his family in Kenya celebrated and marvelled.
Slavery was introduced to British North America when a Dutch ship landed in the year 1619. If the slaves that landed in Cuba, Brazil, the Caribbean and other areas could have seen this day, I postulate that they would have wept at what I witnessed as I watched people in Harlem, New York. A mosaic of the African Diaspora celebrated in a way I never imagined. A young Latin American man brought an African calabash shaker, Creoles brought their tubas, trombones, and trumpets (playing traditional New Orleans jazz) and Africans brought their drums to the streets. This mosaic came together and merged into a beautiful harmony.
The melodic sounds rang through the streets. It did not matter that night if you were White, Asian, Latin or any other ethnicity one felt resounding pride in what we as a people had just accomplished. This event represented a family of different hues that share a commonality that is beyond skin deep. They had someone that represented them, a common culture, and this fact instilled a since of pride never felt before.
Such was the night that stilled the world!
Sarah H. Lilly
-Author
Damon Winter/The New York Times 
