Last Sunday, June 8, the yearly tradition of the Puerto Rican day parade overwhelms New York City. It happens every first Sunday in June, when the mass of Nuyoricans color 5th avenue in a wash of red white and blue. For a whole day, the bougiest neighborhood in the bougiest city in the bougiest nation in the world rings with loud thumps of Reggaeton and repeated shouts of B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Boricua!

For this one day, a prideful people gather to show really how loud, passionate and in-your-face one goup of people can really be. Puerto Rican flags are painted on cars, flown from the highest of skyscrapers, and worn as every article of clothing imagineable. (who knew they made boxer underwear with the PR flag?)

It almost reminds me of the pride that Black folks felt last week when Barack Obama finally (and yes, FINALLY!) secured the Democratic nomination to be president of the United States. We were proud. We smiled, cheered, and congratulated each other. We forwarded emails and re-watched all the great speeches. We compared Obama to every Black leader imaginable. Most of all we just reminisced how none of us thought this could happen in our life time. Black folks have never been so proud.

And so subdued.

There were no jump-for-joy celebrations or parades in the street. No flag waving (do we even have a flag?), hi-fiving or pound-giving (outside of barack and michelle). And there were no impromptu choruses of “lift ev’ry voice and sing”

At least not in public.

Because we know that our overt Boricua-esque celebration of Barack Obama’s nomination, without a doubt a truly historical achievement, probably might not help Barack Obama win the general election. In fact it could make him lose.

Thus far, Barry O. has transcended race in his campaign. He has proved to voters in some of the Whitest states in the country that he is neither Black nor White. He is somehow above race. And even when the Clintons tried to remind the rest of the country repeatedly that our future president could be a Black man with the middle name Hussein, he stood tall, strong and above it all. They just forgot he was Black.

Or maybe they ignored it.

But in order to win against a more sinister marketing campaign (yes, it will get worse), we have to now cheer on Barack without being “too black.” The fist pump under the desk. Or the big smile behind closed doors. We honestly can’t give the excuses to remind the rest of our race-obsessed country that Barack Obama is Black.

Because there’s only so much a group of educated White folks, a huge turnout of Black folks, a backhanded endorsement from Hillary Clinton (oh yeah, and Oprah) can do in the hugely White, race-aware industrial wastelands of Appalachia and the Midwest rust belt that are important to win the general election in November.

And we cant discount the republican marketing machine. I even hear that someone is holding onto a scandalous video of Michelle Obama, waiting to release it sometime closer to November.

Remember they all forgot Oprah was Black - until she endorsed Barack Obama, and then her ratings fell. I wonder if you’ll see anymore of her on the campaign trail.

So the next President of the United States could be a Black man. It SHOULD be a black man. But in order to get there we have to help him. Jump, cheer, donate, etc. But don’t do it because he’s Black. In fact as we push Barack Obama toward the finish line, we might just forget that he’s a Black man, and hope a bunch of folks can forget about it too for at least one Tuesday in November. And then we’ll celebrate.

I’m making my reservation now for the inauguration in January - the biggest fish fry and BBQ the DC has ever seen.

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