Is Obama American Enough to Succeed?

Is Barack Obama enough of an American? Can a person be well-educated, dark-skinned and a real American at the same time?
Obama’s election hinges on whether a majority thinks the latter is possible or is so self-evident that the question is silly. The McCain-Palin ticket’s central strategy still is to stoke doubt and keep the first question alive.

It cannot be denied that this election would get much less attention were it a contest between a young white liberal-centrist and an old white right-wing warrior. The emotional outpouring is there because Obama is non-white in a white nation.

Europeans and other non-Americans are so riveted by this electoral drama because for almost everyone America is a white and multi-denominational Christian nation. In those eyes being black, Hispanic, Asian or Muslim denotes belonging to an immigrant minority tolerated by white Americans but not of them.

For those eyes, it is exciting and surprising to see white people elect an apparently black person to be their Commander-in-Chief and ruler.

Yet, Obama is not really black or an African American despite his skin color. African Americans are just slightly newer than the early white settlers while Obama is the son of a foreign father who did not become American. His claim to being American comes from his white mother and grandparents.

For most eyes, America is white nation because immigrants of other races got there later. Europeans find it hard to see American blacks as being as genuinely American as whites. In Europe, all “colored” people are forever immigrants. France’s Nicholas Sarkozy born of immigrant Hungarians could never have become President were he black or Arab regardless of how many generations of ancestors were French born.

Obama is fighting an honorable battle against difficult odds. He is trying to establish the universal perception that he is American first and all else is second. To do that, he repeatedly tries to reassure voters by pointing to his white grandparents.

In effect, he is telling white voters that despite his skin color and unusual name he is just like them by culture and beliefs. If life were fair, he should not have to do so. His character and human qualities should be enough. Yet his skin color puts him at risk however American his emotions, behavior and values.

Perhaps his character and humanity will triumph. Many white Americans will join others to bring him to the Oval Office.

What then? Would the other white people immediately start to undermine him to prove to all that “We gave the black person a chance but he did not measure up”?

If despite that Obama starts to be a successful President will someone assassinate him just to stop a black person from being a role model for all Americans?

Yet he is not genuinely black because his pigmentation is a quirk of genes. Were his maternal genes stronger, he would have looked white.

Whatever the future holds, Obama would not be a top tier international news story were he white. Perhaps, like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, everyone will forget his skin color when he starts work as President.

But both of them are genuine African Americans raised from slaves. Obama does not have the history. Can he get the respect?

That would be a real triumph for him and for all Americans. The torrent for him is emotional. Perhaps he will be blessed enough to measure up to those emotions.