Hope of an easier path for my kids...

Last year I had to endure the sadness and anger to have my older boy, Jordan, been called a monkey at school by kids who thought that laughing at the colour of his skin was just a funny and acceptable thing to do. Last month, talking to him about Africa and where he was from, I couldn't stop thinking that the world he joined seven years ago didn't change a lot in term of understanding and accepting difference, whatever religion or race you are from. Perhaps someday he will tell his own kids the way much of his life was transformed when he was just a kid.

For now, I considered the redemptive potential of change and believed that hope was not audacious at all.

When Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, I thought that perhaps my son would never feel the sting of childhood labels, would never deal with the awkward uncertainty, and never ask the questions that filled my childhood.

I think I share a very similar experience with Barack Obama from the standpoint that we both grew up mixed in a black and white world. People don't necessary understand that it’s a very different experience, and it’s something my white friends don’t fully understand and something my black friends don’t fully understand. It’s about being sort of in between always.

I'm usually decidedly non-political, but on the US Election night and again last week, I felt proud when I heard Barack Obama referred to "mutts like me". (Bastard)

Child of a mixed-race parents, I always think of the time when I felt "different", but I believe that the US election result could represent the realization of the dream that my children will be judged only by their character and work ethic. It is the dream of every father, of every parent, that their children don’t have to go through all the struggles that we went through, but at the same time, it shaped me to be the person I am today, even though it was a tough time, I’m glad I went through the experience.

You see, you never want to put your kids through oppression or discrimination, you want them to be able to go through struggles, but not like my parents had to go through and hopefully not as bad as I went through. Spending the evening trying to find the best way to explain my child the reason behind white kids calling him monkey at school is something I do not wish to my worst enemy, because the pain and the anger I felt that night is in me for the rest of my life...

I know the feeling of being different, I had to grew up with it, I had black people rejecting me because for them I was a white boy and white people would look at me funny and ignore me. There were some really difficult time for me at a time when a lot of kids just want to fit in, and growing up in Africa, I always found myself to be the only "white boy" in a classroom of 40 kids. I had to learn at an early age that not only it is OK to be different, but it's better to be different.

Barack Obama elected President show that you are put in a place based on what you've done and who you are, not on what you are. You are there by your merit and by your character, not on what you look like.

My father always taught me, it’s about who you are and it doesn’t matter what people say. It doesn’t matter what people think. It’s not about the way people think you should act or talk. It’s about you as a person. Be proud of the person you are.

For Barack Obama to reach the highest political office in the world, knowing what he went through socially, politically, economically growing up, it makes me feel proud. I was just full of pride and full of excitement when I heard him on election night. I think what he represents, the diversity in his own background, the way he grew up, that’s what the world is today. And it’s exciting.

At seven, Jordan doesn't really understand what politic or discrimination is all about but he understood that been called "monkey" that day at school was not funny at all but just really painful...