IF Senator Barack Obama wins the US Presidential election today, he will have done so after sacrificing many of his cherished core beliefs. We hope the Senator makes it to the White House, but we are keeping our hopes not so high. Has America really transformed to embrace the Black Senator and can we really truly talk about the post race era that Professor Ali Mazrui recently suggested in the Ugandan Monitor?
Obama has made two key sacrifices: denunciation of his Pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his Muslim faith. We hope he will be rewarded for these sacrifices.
It seems odd, to say the least, that after so many centuries, America has easily embraced a Black Presidential hopeful. It does indeed seem like we are past race and racialization in US politics – what the learned Professor Mazrui suggested.
But how can we truly be past race? We are still Black, White, or any any other color that we choose to assume. That means we still view the world from our racial perspective. This is not to suggest that we are necessarily racist.
There remain some Black people who claim that America does not see differences anymore and that many White voters would easily romp Barack Obama to victory without any qualms about the kind of ‘White House’ a Black man will create. I do not subscribe to this simplistic view and please excuse my pessimism, when everybody else is so hopeful.
Odder still that there remain those who on the one hand can embrace the new Black President in White America, but still cannot get around to understanding the simple fact that America is still a very divided society – with many Blacks still living in impoverishment and below the poverty line in a Western industrialized country.
Interestingly, the vicious Western media has completely embraced Sen Obama. Why? Is it because he is great orator, or simply because he is televisual and 'televangelistic', or a combination of both? Are they setting him up for a huge downfall or they are truly embracing him?
I would like to be proved incorrect today as the polls open. I will be one of the few people who will stay overnight (here in the United Kingdom) to watch history unfold.
America has to show the world that Obama, a Black Kenyan-American – who is not the stereotypical Black American whose forefathers were transported ‘Trans-Atlantically’ on a Slave Ship – would make it into the Oval Office at the ‘White House’ – the symbol of “White America’s” pride.
I think racialization still has a lot to do with how we perceive ourselves and our role in society. Racism is hatred of the other race. Both are still existent in America, although racialization is not evil, but inevitable. Racism is evil and divisive. The response of GW Bush to hurricane Katrina is seen in many academic circles as reflective of the divisions in America.
Whereas African Americans may have motivations to be vigilant for the possibility of racism, White Americans may be motivated to deny racism because it constitutes a threat to social identity and to the legitimacy of the status quo. This could explain White America's public embrace of Sen. Barack Obama, but that has to translate into votes for the Black Senator.
When I decide to eat at a Nigerian (of African) restaurant, there are reasons to do with my ‘blackness’ that I choose that diner (racialization), but when I am not allowed to eat at a ‘Whites only’ restaurant, that’s racism. Both concepts about race determine how and why we always gravitate towards those who look like us – towards the comfort zone.
These in-built, racialized mental mechanisms, determine to a large extent, how we respond to certain signals in society and influence our behaviour; including voting behaviour.
I hope Americans, White Americans, will find comfort in voting a Black man into the White House. I hope they will find comfort in voting “the other” into the Oval office.
Suggestions that Americans are choosing between a White woman and a Black President are ill-informed. Voters, including many American voters, never base their voting behaviour on the office of the Vice President. Many of you might not even remember Senator John Kerry’s running mate during the 2004 Presidential campaign, or Senator Albert Gore’s running mate in the 2000 election.
Most voters never worry as much about a Vice President. They vote a President in. Senator John McCain is the candidate, not Governor Sarah Palin. The presidential race is dubbed: McCain v Obama, not Obama v Palin. If a Vice President was that important, why is the media not so obsessed with Delaware’s Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate?
Racialization could be compared to sexualization (not sexism). This is why America is obsessed with Senators Obama and Palin. They represent "the other", along race and sex lines.
Senator Barack Obama’s election as President will bring some optimism into international politics and will usher in a new era in American politics. We are all eagerly anticipating his inauguration and support him one hundred per cent, but we are also keeping our eyes and ears open, to avoid an eventual disappointment.
Today American could set a precedent that Britain, France, Germany, etc could follow. However, it is not yet a forgone conclusion that Black Kenyan Senator, Barack Obama, will occupy the White House after George W. Bush. Besides being judged on his policies, he will be judged on his color as well, regardless of how much we try to brush this fact aside.
The huge popularity he has enjoyed thus far, will have to translate into votes.
[Clifford Frank Mutangadura works as a reseacher with a Royal Institute in the United Kingdom. He prefers to be contacted through The Zimbabwe Guardian at info@talkzimbabwe.com]
n/a • n/a Subject: n/a Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:04:34 • Idiots like Ku baby who think that black people have had no knowledge of science or mathematics should just stick to being stupid whites who are known to have perfected the art of murder! The genocide that this white p-g talks about that happened in Rwanda was done in collusion with white people, white people who are called the French! however this pales in significance to the murders of the Germans against Jews, the British against blacks aspiring for their independence and those blacks who want to own their resources. So this idiot growing fat on a benefits culture that is bankrolled by resources being stolen from Africa should just go and take his proscribed substances and binge drink until he goes home to his boyfriend where they do ungodly acts and let him leave us alone! The m-otherf-cking son of a one-pound a nite whore who was born in sewer! No wonder his malfunctioning addled brain is so full of sewage and everything that is bad and unholy!
serres • jjtaylor98@yahoo.com Subject: KU baby Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:00:12 • There are some increasingly distorted views of reality peddled on thsi site but Ku baby has raised the game to new heights! World War 1, World War 2?? Can't remember much black involvement except teh poor bastards who were called up to serve an empire which treated them as cannon fodder!
todd kidd • toddkidd67@yahoo.com Subject: Obama Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:10:30 • To: My brothers and sisters of Zimbabwe
I, Todd Kidd, am a black American who will proudly cast his vote for Senator Obama for President. I live in a predominately white subdivision where homes go for $250,000 and above. There are no signs in the yards for Obama in my neighborhood. However, I'm voting for Obama because I sincerely belive he is the better candidate. Yes, America has a large segment of the population of black America living in poverty; however, many of us are also living in the middle class. White America knows this and many are willing to give an intelligent black person a chance. Unfortunatley, many whites in the southern states cannot get past race; they have been conditioned to belive that they're superior to people of color. I have many of neighbors who work in the petroleum industry in Angola & Nigeria working for multi-national companies in Africa but they can't fathom the idea of having a black neighbor.
America's demographics are quickly chaning with her Hispanic population doubling in the Southwest and her African American population increasing in the Southeast. Obama is the first person of color who will be president and he is laying the groundwork for more to come after him. He is like Mugabe and that Obama is preparing the way for black america to have a foothole in their country. He want be able to do everything for black america but he will change the image of the black man world wide.
Love live black empowerment in Zimbabwe. The land in Zimbabwe belongs to the people and the resources underneath it belong to the people.
Thanks for your time. Black American in Louisiana.
Ku Baby • pbuhwasevil@yahoo.com Subject: Blacks need to look at themselves Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:19:48 • What have you blacks contributed to the 21st century... Famine, killing and genocide. You people have not made anything more than a pointed stick!
If Obama makes it to the white house he will fuck up the one place that is contributing to the progress of mankind!
Writing from Alaska • sendmethenews@gmail.com Subject: Obama Not Other - Palin is a problem Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:20:23 • I live in Anchorage, Alaska, and teach at a local school. As I look around me at my very diverse community, it seems to me that people like Obama are not the Other. America is an increasingly multiracial, ethnically mixed and diverse country. I am always somewhat amused when I hear our still predominately White school administrations talk about the importance of educating our kids about multiculturalism. I look at my friends - African American friends, Alask Native friends, and others who gather together for family gatherings which include three to four racial threads woven into one family. Most of the kids I teach live and breath cultural diversity on a daily basis, they just don't call it that - they call it family.
I did want to note, that you refer to Obama giving up his 'Muslim faith, and his pastor' - I am quite certain that Obama is a Christian, and even if he was not, Jeremiah Wright would not be his 'pastor' if he was a Muslim so it is fair to only assume that he may have given up one or the other - not both. And, as I discussed with a friend today, Obama's original comments on Wright was not to distance himself, but Wright couldn't resisit the opportunity to become very vocal while he had the spotlight, and carried it too far. That is when Obama disavowed the affiliation.
As for Sarah Palin - she hit the national stage in a big way so it is inevitable that she would garner lots of attention. Her appeal to the 'core' or what is actually more accurately called the 'hard core' right demanded considerable attention. What is sexist, is the many photographs of her on stage that have only shown her calves and red pumps. Many of the comments that might be considered sexist, are encouraged by some of her behaviors, such as winking at the camera during a debate. As an Alaska resident, I have been very unhappy that there has been so much attention to trivialities and a real lack of coverage for serious problems in Alaska that are more accurate reflections of Palin's capabilities. Among other things, our rual communities are in crisis and rural residents are flooding out of the rural villages and into the cities at previously unforeseen rates of migration. It is very sad and will have negative implications for the preservation of Native cultures in Alaska, not to mention the pressure it is putting on services in the cities.
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