Barackonomics

Howard University News Service

Shannon Hardy of Brooklyn, N.Y., rushed over and plopped his knapsack onto an empty white table. He unzipped it and out poured a variety of pins with pictures of the 44th president, Barack Obama, the first lady, Michelle, and their daughters.

"They will not let you into the parade without a button," Hardy shouted as people walked by.

Vendors decorated the streets of Chinatown in D.C. with an array of Barack Obama apparel including T-shirts that read, "I was here, and you wasn't."

Vendors traveled far and wide, with many originating from New York, to be part of history and to get a stake in the money to be made from the Obama craze.

Hardy arrived in D.C. with 4,000 Obama pins and buttons. Within a few days, he sold half of them at two for $5.

"Let me drop a jewel," said Hardy, which is a term meaning words of wisdom. "This is Barackonomics. They had Reaganomics. This is Barackonomics. It gives everyone inspiration. It is progress. I see a lot of people who used to sell drugs, and now they're doing something positive."

Comparing Obama-Mania to Crack Simpon Jones, manager of Last Stop, a clothing store on Georgia Avenue, said, "Obama is crack cocaine, and everybody is trying to get their dollar off of Obama." Jones' stock of Obama shirts were winding down on the evening before inauguration. He offered deals when customers purchased more than one T-shirt with promotions, such as buy one get one half off. His cheapest shirts sold for $9.99.

Star Walters, 41, of Ohio, a petite brown-skinned woman, boasted about the deals Jones offered her on the shirts she'd just purchased for herself, her mom, her sweetheart and her son.

"He wants everybody to be happy and be able to take something back home," said Walters, adding that she would wear her Obama shirt for the inauguration.

From Keychains to 'The Audacity of Soap' Next door at Sports Zone, a sports clothing store also on Georgia Avenue, was an entirely new selection of Obama T-shirts that read "Yes We Can," "The Dream Is Real," "I Love Barack Obama" and "Coming to Every Home" with a picture of the first family within a television set. Others T-shirts were made from the covers of Time and Vibe magazines, which featured headshots of the president for $9 to $14.

On the same block, Up Against the Wall, an urban clothing store, sold not only "high-quality" Obama T-shirts for $45, but also Obama fitted caps for $36, key chains, bags and "The Audacity of Soap" with a red and blue picture of Obama.

"This is the only one (inauguration) that we've been open for," said Al Nice, manager of the store for 18 years. "We normally close on inauguration because there is normally no traffic." Nice said that people from England, Germany and Botswana have made their way into his store.

Colin and Necko Taylor of California chatted as they sifted through, Nice's selection of original T-shirts. Colin's brother is a licensed vendor who provided the couple with Obama gear.

Lashonda Wright, a resident of Laurel, Md., described the need for Obama paraphernalia as "Obamarama!"

One-Man Stimulus Package Whereas Necko said, "We're calling it the one-man stimulus-package. Everybody seems to be capitalizing off of his presidency."

In the bitter cold, a man with locks who calls himself Z-Love stood outside Up Against the Wall, clutching $5 portraits of Obama drawn by his friend.

"Everybody is feeling Obama right now," said Z-Love, who is from Camden, N.J., but is staying with a friend in D.C.

One woman in search of Obama souvenirs said, "if this wasn't happening, they wouldn't be able to make any money."

In Chinatown, Hardy thought it was great that people were feeding off Obama's energy. "With any other president, this wouldn't have been possible."

Something New; Something Fresh Many described it as the need for someone new and something fresh.

"It's because he's different," said Wright's friend Lisa Bizzell of Atlanta. "He is not the same old traditional that we've seen the last 43 presidents. He's different not only because of his race, but his style. He is the people's president. You haven't seen that since JFK."

For some like Trevor Johnson of Los Angeles, the Obama fad was part of the excitement that accompanied history in the making.

Johnson bought an Obama poster and called it a "nice collector's item."

"It means a lot," Johnson said. "The first African-American elected to the world's highest office. It's a big honor. Thinking about all the struggles that black people have been through just here in this country alone. I think it really says a lot. Anybody who looks any resemblance to me is a big deal. I think that caught everybody by surprise."

Indeed it did, especially for those who witnessed the civil rights era and years of segregation like Shukriyyah Muhamed, 61, of Montclair, N.J.

"I think about all my ancestors who's not here who really struggled and paid the price so Barack could get up in there," said Muhamed, who added that the new president was a "very handsome brother."

Muhamed set up shop at Vermont and U Streets, where she sold baseball hats for $8, pins and calendars for $3, a $9 Barack Obama bill for a dollar, key chains, and adult and children's shirts. Muhamed also works for Blue Cross Horizon, Blue Shield, an insurance company.

"The people who went through the civil rights with the beating and the lynching, the KKK and all the hanging and stuff, I wish they were here; my mother she's not here," Muhamed said. "This is for them."