He leapt the tallest barrier. What does it mean for black America?

Adds Minott: "It's about time we have a different meaning of what it means to be a black man and a black father."

But "it's not just the black male, it's the family," says Miller. "He's giving us the whole image. Obama is a healing balm."

These are lofty thoughts about what an Obama presidency might do for African Americans. But a major shift can't occur unless African Americans -- actually all Americans -- submit to the changing dynamics. Instead of demanding another discussion about racism or clocking when the incarceration crisis appears on the radar, black Americans should work to sustain what Obama's campaign set in motion. They should seek to hold together his coalition -- reaching out to non-African Americans -- and use it to drive a progressive agenda. Not a black agenda, but a human agenda.

Not long ago, African American author Charles Johnson noted that blacks have been too invested "in the pre-21st-century black American narrative," and that we need "new and better stories, new concepts and new vocabularies and grammar based not on the past but on the dangerous, exciting and unexplored present."

That present has now arrived. Jesse Jackson, one of the principal authors of the pre-21st-century narrative, understands this. Obama, he told me, "has removed the roof. If Barack can be president, then there ain't nothing we can't do."

Obama's real contribution is allowing blacks to see ourselves as victors. That's more valuable to black advancement than any item on a pre-fabricated list of demands. Can I get an "Amen"?

rosebook1@aol.com

Jonetta Rose Barras is a Washington author and political analyst.