A stuck generation understands the big deal
MIAMI - Steve Graham is a teacher and the schools in Florida were closed yesterday because it was Election Day, and so he was sitting there last night, watching TV, wondering just what he was going to say to his kids, his students, today.
"You know what," he said, looking at the TV as even the Fox crowd was saying it was over. "I'm probably not going to say anything. I'm just going to facilitate a conversation. I'm just going to let the kids talk."
Steve Graham grew up on Howland Street in Grove Hall. He moved to Florida five years ago and now teaches social studies to ninth-graders at Everglades High School in Miramar, Fla. He's the golf coach, too. He never thought in a million years that the best golfer in the world and the president of the United States would be black like him.
"I went to the Mather School, and I had one black teacher - Miss Taylor," he said. "I'm going to be 40 next month, and I'll tell you, in my lifetime, I'd say there were three big moments, three things that meant something to me as a black man. John Thompson winning the NCAA tournament as the coach at Georgetown. Doug Williams winning the Super Bowl. And Tiger winning the Masters. But this. This is a lot different, a lot bigger than somebody winning some sports thing."
He watched the news yesterday with his daughter, Chloe, 6.
"We were watching the TV, and Obama was there voting, in Chicago, and he had his daughters with him, and I said to Chloe, 'Those girls look like you.' And she was like, 'Yeah, I know.' "
Chloe Graham had only one question for her father yesterday: "Dad," she asked, "did you vote?"
"For her, it's not even 'We can do this.' My daughter just thinks this is normal," Steve Graham said. "My father went to a school when it was called North Carolina College for Negroes. And when I went there, it was called North Carolina Central University. Now they're thinking about calling it the University of North Carolina at Durham."
At 9:19 p.m., Fox called Ohio for Obama.
"Can you believe that?" Steve Graham asked, shaking his head.
In 10 hours, he would begin one of three classes he will teach today.
"I've got 90 kids in three classes, and out of those 90 kids, I've got two white kids," he said. "One of the white kids got up in class the other day and she said, 'I want McCain to win,' and the black kids were like, 'Hey, that's cool.'
"It was no big deal. These kids are so different, so tolerant, so way beyond us. I think it's great."
On Monday, Steve Graham asked them what they thought about what was going to happen on Tuesday.
"I asked them if they understood how significant this was. And their reaction was, 'Hey, it's not a big deal.' Now these are mostly minority kids. Part of me thinks they don't think it's a big deal because they don't understand the barriers that were broken down before this. And part of me thinks that's good. And part of me says, some day they will understand what this all means, and they will just say, 'Wow.' They will get it. Down the road. They will get it."
Steve Graham is part of a generation stuck between Tiger Woods and Barack Obama. On this day, when he talks to his students, when he talks to his golfers, he can say for the first time in his life, and really mean it: You can be anything you want to be.
Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com. 