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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: American blacks look to Obama as savior from enemy within Nurney Mason opened his barbershop in 1961, and since then he has witnessed a lifetime of changes outside his window on H Street in the US capital. Now he hopes Barack Obama can deliver even more. "I think he's it," says Mason, describing Obama's bid to become the first black US president as "something ordained from above." "He says he is going to bring about a change. Everyone knows it's time. It's the right time." In this gentrifying city where blacks make up close to 57 percent of the population, predominantly black neighborhoods such as this one are seeing pricey bistros, edgy bars and rock clubs sprout up among the hair braiding salons, discount grocery marts and check-cashing stalls. Still, the contrasts on offer just a short distance across town from the pristine streets that surround the Supreme Court, Capitol Building and White House can be startling. Residents struggle with everything from broken glass on the sidewalks and overflowing trash bins to deadly shootings, drug houses, prostitution, gangs of unsupervised teens roaming streets and the highest HIV/AIDS rate of any US city. So Mason, 78, appreciates it when someone tells it like it is. "Obama, he is not arrogant at all. He wants to help the lower class people," says the father of six as he eases into a swivel chair and looks on while his youngest son, Robbie, clips his eldest son's hair. Mason says he had no problem with Obama's Father's Day address last month when he said too many black fathers are missing from their families' lives. "He's just stating the facts. A lots of black fathers are in prison. He is saying black fathers should step up to the plate." The favorable views of Obama held by Mason and others in the barbershop are reflected in the findings of nationwide polls. A Gallup poll last month suggested Obama enjoys 86 percent support among African-Americans. A Pew research poll in March found that even as 36 percent of blacks fear Obama's heritage could hurt his likelihood of winning, three-quarters are impressed with his ability to handle controversy. Blacks make up about 13 percent of the US population as a whole. "The more they criticize him, the better it gets," says Mason, who saves his own verbal lashing for civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who was caught on video last week muttering into a live microphone that Obama was "talking down to black people," and how Jackson, 66, wanted to "cut his nuts off." "It's time for him to sit down," says Mason. His son, Nurney K. Mason, 51, draped in a black salon cape, agrees. "Nothing is sadder than a person embittered by the spotlight that has passed them by. Go out in dignity, Jesse," he says. Nearby, Robert Mackey, 61, sits before a checker board, the chips laid out neatly in preparation for the next game, and says that racial discrimination is no longer the primary obstacle for the black community in America. "When Martin Luther King was around there were a lot of black-white issues," he says. "That generation has passed. People change." Now, he says blacks largely face the same issues as whites, with high gas prices, rising cost of living, homes that are unaffordable, and a war in Iraq that many feel is misguided. But Mackey says one issue of particular resonance for blacks is education -- poor quality schools, broken down classrooms, lack of energetic teachers -- and he is optimistic that Obama will be the one to fix that. "Hopefully he can open the door for us as a people." Upstairs from the barbershop at the Sophizticated Ladyz Hair Salon, owner Charlene Brown nods as she recalls Obama's speech about absent fathers. "I'm one of those victims," says Brown, 36, a single mother who works in a government office by day and styles hair evenings and weekends, and who laments the quality of education her teenage son is getting in public school. "Our race is against each other more than we are supporting each other," she says as her gloved hands press cream relaxer into a client's hair. "We are our own haters at times, especially if we are successful." Even though she calls herself a victim, she rejects the mantle of victimhood -- saying she works a desk job for stable pay and benefits, and the stylist job because she likes making women feel special. "I don't think he was talking down. I think he was talking for improvements," she says. "All I know is he 'da bomb, and I'm gonna vote for him," she grins. "He would be, like, a super idol for our community, for all the ones who have low hopes and dreams."
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#5. To: christine (#0)
Following you, I climb the mountain, I get excitement at your feet.
#7. To: MUDDOG (#5)
we're not gonna take it
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