Thursday, November 06, 2008

Obama's race was never an issue - until he won

Is it me, or has anyone noticed how - prior to the election - the media were oh so keen to play down the question of the Obama's colour, but now he is President Elect they can't go on about it enough?

In the run up to the election the BBC seemed to have an awful lot of interviews with disenchanted white folk who were going to vote for Obama. Now there seem to be endless interviews with black people - not only in America, but here, there and everywhere.

If there is one thing this election has done, it has laid to rest the myth that white people routinely discriminate against blacks. A predominantly white nation has voted for a black president. What are the chances of the opposite happening in Zimbabwe or South Africa?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Beeb were out at Dalston Market, of all places, yesterday, grabbing every black/Asian person they could find to ask them how they felt about the election.

It was quite bizarre!

TheFatBigot said...

Nothing the BBC does could ever be described as bizarre, it just washes over me now.

I recall reading somewhere that something like 95% of blacks and hispanics voted for Obama but only about 45% of whites. If those figures, or anything like them, are correct, race seems to have been a big player among the electorate.

Anonymous said...

The difference between the US and Africa being, that a white president in Africa would seem reminiscent of imperial times.

Stan said...

"The difference between the US and Africa being, that a white president in Africa would seem reminiscent of imperial times."

Why? If a Briton can be black or white, then why can't an African be black or white?

And does that mean that now Obama is now president of the USA they could, for example, take over the Congo without being charged of "imperialism" or "colonialism"?

Finally, imperialism is not the preserve or invention of the white race - there were black, Asian and Arab imperialists long before we got involved in anything and even recent times. Ever heard of Haile Sellasie?