Since Angela hadn’t read the assigned chapters, she was glad to see the man standing at the front of her political science class that fall morning. It was the tail end of the campaign season, and all the politicians were making their rounds among the Atlanta University Center schools, trying to scrounge up sign holders and leaflet throwers. She would have to listen to a speech, but at least she wouldn’t be put on front street with a whole bunch of questions she didn’t know the answers to.
It didn’t seem like anybody in the classroom was anxious to hear whatever this man had to say. Most of the students were off in their own worlds, thinking about anything other than the political views he was about to share. “County Commissioner…,” she heard the professor say. For the next 50 minutes, it would be all rah-rah and yah-hoo about the homeless who would be housed, the jobs that would be created, the healthcare that would be available, and the family values that would be restored—all because she and her classmates carried his signs.
The speaker was a milk chocolate brown man with really pretty light brown eyes. He had a kind of Lionel Jefferson style to him with his mid-length afro all combed toward the front of his head. Angela thought he looked like a nerd. He certainly didn't look like anybody who could make any kind of difference for the people. He was ultra corporate-looking, and no brother in the 1990s is supposed to comb an afro to the front of his head. Some styles come back, but that one wasn't on anybody's radar screen.
And his voice. It had a Mr. Rogers vibe to it, Angela thought. She wasn't sure if this was going to be about politics of if they were about to have Story Time.
But what he said was a totally different matter altogether, and it seemed Angela wasn’t alone in her sudden tendency to hang on to his every word. This man didn’t seem like all the rest of the politicians she’d heard before. He actually sounded sincere. His words transformed his voice from Mr. Rodgers to Mike Tyson. Yes, it was still weird, but you just knew you’d be in for a rude awakening if you fucked with this man. Angela was impressed. And like almost all the rest of the students in her class, she signed up to do whatever she could do to help this man be the next County Commissioner.
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