Obama is Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls [New York Times]
Race no longer impediment to highest US office [AFP]
Obama’s post-racial promise [LA Times]
Obama’s victory caps struggles of previous generations [CNN]
Americans move a step closer to post-racial society [Vancouver Sun]
Obama’s victory fulfills the hope of generations [Detroit Free Press]
The nation that stops a race … until now [Sydney Morning Herald]
For some white voters, Obama’s race is seen as a ‘bonus’ [LA Times]
Obama crosses `colour line`, elected first black US president [Sify, India]
Related posts:
- Zionism Must be Defended (or, Barack Obama’s AIPAC speech)
- Sarah Silverman: If Barack Obama doesn’t become the next president of the United States I’m gonna blame the Jews
- Racism, History and Video Tape in South Africa
- North Carolina to go Tar Heel Blue
- Political Racism: The Year in Review
So… in order to end prejudice against Muslims/Arabs, we have to have an Muslim/Arab president… ?
Good to know.
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2008, 9:33 amQuiQui I’m sorry that you don’t get it. If you lived through the marches, the assassinations, the water hoses, the lynchings, etc, maybe you would be gracious enough for congratulations. I don’t know why it is that I get it and you don’t, because I wasn’t alive either. Did you skip Autobiography of Malcolm X or something?
No one is claiming racism is over, but look how far we have come. And please imagine what this could mean to the African American community. Imagine that millions of little kids now believe that anything is possible for them, and what effect that could have going forward.
Posted by American Muslim Girl | November 5, 2008, 12:05 pmSafiyyah, I thought you were going to grace our blog with your exit some weeks ago?
I’m sorry to have had to put myself in the position of reading the idiocy you keep spewing out. As you’ve just made clear, if at one time you read Malcolm X you have no idea what it is that Malcolm X said. And you certainly have no idea what he was writing up against.
It is common knowledge that after haj, “whiteness” is what X realized was the problem — not white skin. This meant that poor whites were part of the struggle. The Black Panther Party met with the KKK in North Carolina to discuss an alliance against this very thing. The danger of economic inequality is also something MLK realized in the latter part of his life. Before he was killed for no longer playing nice.
In these analyses (from the very people who did live through the marches, the assassinations, the water hoses, the lynchings, as you say) Barack Obama and other bourgeois blacks are part of the enemy.
Idiot.
You don’t get anything because you know nothing. And clearly, you also have never thought about anything.
Posted by QuiQui | November 5, 2008, 1:39 pmYour arrogance is blinding!! You presume to speak on behalf of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King if they were alive now? Have you seen how Cornel West, Jessie Jackson, and countless other leaders in the African American community are reacting to this? Is there one of them who is denying the significance of this moment?? It is a significant moment of true progress in a very long and arduous journey… that is far from over, we must all realize that of course. Certainly, we need to guard against becoming complacent about continued racism, discrimination, and inequality, that is for sure. But, the reaction of the African American community in this country has been quite clear. They feel more joy and hope then they have felt at any other time in their recent history.
Oh God, you’re one of those activist intellectuals who presumes to speak for and know what’s best for the communities they advocate for, even more than the members of those communities themselves. The worst kind of arrogance.
Posted by Jerk Nadim | November 5, 2008, 4:25 pmOf course now that a man with black skin will be president, poor African Americans will not be excused for “their failings” by whites. Black people will continue to be victims of systematic racism in this country, except now white people will be able to say to them “there is no more racism we elected a black president, so if you are still behind it is truly your fault.” That is the gift that Obama gives to white people and that is why they are so in love with him.
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2008, 4:38 pmA note from a hopeful Obama supporter.. I am now disappointed in the President Elect.. Terrible Zionist choice for Chief of Staff – Rep. Rahm Emanuel.
Posted by Heidi | November 5, 2008, 4:55 pmYou people thatelected this brown skin beleive hes African-American are surely the misinformed.Huessien obama is not Afican American for all thetrue African Americans.he is of Aribac ancestory which made slaves of thepeople of Africa and sold them as slaves to the eurpeans.. which is muslim,and so he is also of muslim descendant,So all you white trailer trash he paic to be in his pictures better be ready to be obediant to Ali
Posted by Anonymous | November 5, 2008, 7:25 pmQuiQui please get off your high horse. I wonder what you would be saying if Barack had lost? Do you have a problem with white America electing a person of color to the presidency? The arguments against people of color will stay much the same as they have in the past and the problems of whiteness in this country will continue. In case you haven’t noticed, whites have believed racism to be over for a while now.
If you can’t see that Barack’s election was any sort of step forward for race relations in this country then you really must be living in a bubble. Racism is alive and well, but Barack has made an important and necessary step in a positive direction. The tears of joy in the black community yesterday were not about racism being over; they were about symbolic hope for this country. African Americans, rich and poor, have contributed to this society in countless ways and it’s about damn time that a person of color won. When I see my best friend’s mother’s face filled with tears of joy for Barack, I don’t need to remind her that as a black woman living in Detroit that racism still isn’t over, instead I need to celebrate with her in that moment and pick up the fight against racism and economic inequality the next day. I understand your frustration, but give the guy at least an inch.
Posted by Anon | November 5, 2008, 10:24 pmwhat matters now are his actions. Until we see what he actually does as opposed to the cliche of change that anon talks about then all this talk about black and white is tragic.
Posted by Mo | November 5, 2008, 10:42 pmI have to confess though, that I did liken him to a black Bill Clinton which did not go down well with others who see him as the new Martin Luther King/ Nelson Mandela although he is far from being a Mandela.
Posted by Mo | November 5, 2008, 11:02 pmFor me he has always been the black Ronald Reagan. After all, that is the president Obama himself says he would most like to to emulate. Needless to say, I am not popular with my liberal Obamaphile friends when I point how how Obama mixes with leftism like oil mixes with water. They think I should maybe go vote for a Republican instead or “get real.”
Well, I hope my friends don’t find out about reality looks like when it slaps them down with a cluex4. I would much prefer to look the fool or the hopeless cynic than be right about Obama.
Posted by Sean | November 6, 2008, 12:02 pmNadim — really well said, couldn’t agree more:
“Oh God, you’re one of those activist intellectuals who presumes to speak for and know what’s best for the communities they advocate for, even more than the members of those communities themselves. The worst kind of arrogance.”
there’s nothing more alienating or divisive or collectively self-defeating than that very strain of stubbornly arrogant self-righteousness aired unchecked in the name of “intellectualism.”
quiqui — the more you tone down the condescending disdain and hyper-egotism, the more likely readers — including the communities for which you (and only you) seem to know what’s best — will be receptive to giving more serious thought to what you have to say and offering more measured and substantive critique of your ideas .
the more you take it upon yourself to narrow the parameters of acceptable, valid opinion and casually widen the sphere of “idiocy,” the more eye roll and “fuck off” impulses you’ll continue to trigger (likely more common than you even realize).
just some things to consider.
Posted by Nacho | November 6, 2008, 2:02 pmSean, you’re not alone in feeling the way you do dude. I accept Obama is a large step forward for blacks in the US. He is definitely NOT a step forward for liberalism (whatever that means now).
Posted by Mohammad | November 6, 2008, 2:55 pm“look how far we have come”
Sorry, but I’m not catching the drift.
1) Don’t fool yourself: if Obama weren’t “half-white”, he would never have been elected, even if it would’ve meant another decade of suffering from the Bush-ist policies of McCain. Obama was branded “ok” because he was “half-white”, not because or regardless of his half-blackness.
2) If Bush and gang’s rule hadn’t been so dangerously disastrous, you would’ve seen 8 years of McCain.
3) Obama won partly because he was so ambiguous. Much as I hate McCain, I have to admit that he was much more principled than Obama, who flip-flopped so often, that I get dizzy just thinking about it. You guys seem to have the hots for unprincipled politics (note that I’m not saying McCain is principled or would’ve been principled if he were elected; but his campaign — whether it was about a real issue or merely of propaganda value such as the anti-Muslim rhetoric — was more clear on the issues than Obama’s, relatively speaking). Obama earned my disgust and hatred when he could not muster the courage to condemn the Islamophobic comments and personal attacks against people he had met with or befriended. This wasn’t the first time, of course. Obama showed he would go to all lengths to get the presidency, including distancing himself from his church, which he would not have done if Wright’s speeches hadn’t been exposed. He would’ve continued to sit there and listen and nod in agreement.
4) The fact that Americans elected such a flip-flopping bastard (excuse the nasty word, but that’s what he is) does not mean that racism is over, or that the stereotypes and biases towards African-Americans and other minorities is over, or will soon come to an end. This Obama-as-Jesus-Christ-the-Saviour rhetoric is laughable. I don’t know if it’s naivete or plain old stupidity. I am beginning to be convinced that it’s the latter.
5) I sure hope African-Americans aren’t pinning their hopes for the betterment of their lot on Obama. They will be as disappointed as the majority of black South Africans were with the promises and “achievements” of ANC. Obama, just like ANC, if he pays any attention to black Americans, will almost exclusively cater to the black middle-class aspiring to attain upper-class status. A select few compared to the overwhelming majority that suffers from problems, be it educational, health, income, crime, etc. Obama is the privileged white man’s president-elect, even if he may have won 90% of the African-American vote and most (?) of the Hispanic vote.
6) Sorry to say, but anyone who voted for Obama is an idiot, yes, even those who did it because they were afraid that McCain would come to power. What’s stopping all those people who justified voting for Obama on those grounds from investing their votes in an Independent candidate? If I could vote, I would’ve voted for Ralph Nader. The real change will have come to America when someone like Nader, or any other independent, can at last break the totalitarianist monopoly of the 2 parties on the presidency.
You have not come a long way, please, get real. If anything, you have gone a couple of steps back in the struggle for true change. In politics, there is nothing more dangerous than a mirage that promises change but pledges allegiance to the status quo. Obama’s blackness is a smokescreen that halts real change. You are only fooling yourself if you think it’s otherwise.
Posted by A Blogger from Lebanon | November 7, 2008, 4:38 amWhat shocks me here is how much more commentary was provoked by QuiQui’s short post, imae, and links.
In defense of QuiQui’s point here, the talk about this being the end of racism is vastly overblown.
Mass media talking heads discussing race is a bit like when during my single days women on dates would bring up sports because Cosmo told them to discuss things that impress dudes. They feel like they need to talk about it, but they cannot possibly do justice to the subject.
For instance, recall that Barack Obama had to deny he was an Arab and Muslim. How was this not driven by racism (of course, most pundits think of racism in only black and white terms).
And the same mainstream media discussing race did not report on the vast racism being expressed by some McCain-Palin supporters. The widely-circulated Al-Jazeera English piece reporting on a rally in Ohio demonstrated forms of this.
I had one story told to me about someone who told my friend she would be voting for “that Nigger” because he was a “good one.”
At best his election means the majority reject racism, but that does not indicate it is dead.
A conclusion should be after we gauge whether society has truly evolved.
Will
Posted by Will | November 9, 2008, 5:12 pm