Why can it be said that America is the world’s greatest social experiment? This article By Thomas Klau from Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland outlines the transformation that is bound to take place in and out of the United States the moment Barack Obama takes the oath and enters the Oval office.
“In the United States where the relationship between Black and White remains burdened by old guilt and fresh resentment, this marks a turning point in civilization. But the election battle now playing out in the United States will not only alter America.
Focusing a bit more on the ramifications for Europeans of Obama’s candidacy, Klau Writes:
“At the moment, it’s virtually inconceivable that a major party in any European country would elect a politician of Black-African origins to be their leading candidate. We Europeans – and particularly us Germans – live with this reality quite unconsciously and totally at ease; it seems normal and is taken for granted that the leading representatives of our country have the same skin color as the majority.”
As to what will happen the moment Obama wind the Democratic nomination, Klau writes:
“The day that Obama has the Democratic nomination in the bag, cracks will begin to appear in our collective innocence. It will shatter completely when a Black family moves into the White House in January 2009. And this shift in awareness which would go hand-in-hand with our shattered innocence, would not bypass the rest of Europe. Suddenly we would have to ask ourselves questions we have never asked before. Indeed – what would it mean to us if the child or grandchild of an African became a candidate for the chancellorship? The answer is a recognition that unless we want a society in which skin color predetermines the awarding of offices and influence, much of Europe will have to change its mindset.”
Klau concludes on the ramifications of an Obama victory this way:
“It would be the strongest signal yet that the frenzied, paranoid jingoism – and with it torture, arbitrary detention and negligent wars of aggression – imposed by elements of the political right after September 11th 2001 – has finally lost its dominance. After eight years of George W. Bush, the rest of the world deserves such a signal just as much as the United States.
By Thomas Klau
Translated By Ulf Behncke
May 16, 2008
Germany – Financial Times Deutschland – Original Article (German)
If no giant scandal, assassination attempt or other misfortune occurs against all expectations and throws things into disarray, Barack Obama’s nomination as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate for the November 4th elections is secure. That in itself is an epochal step: Never before in the history of American democracy – or any democracy – has a Black candidate stood such a good chance of being elected to a country’s top position by a White majority.
In the U.S.A., where the relationship between Black and White remains burdened by old guilt and fresh resentment, this marks a turning point in civilization. But the election battle now playing out in the United States will not only alter America.
At the moment, it’s virtually inconceivable that a major party in any European country would elect a politician of Black-African origins to be their leading candidate. We Europeans – and particularly us Germans – live with this reality quite unconsciously and totally at ease; it seems normal and is taken for granted that the leading representatives of our country have the same skin color as the majority. But this normalcy also means that German citizens with a certain skin color must remain excluded – regardless of whether they have a German passport, were born in Germany, speak German, Swabian or Saxonian.
EUROPE TOO, MUST CHANGE
This is, if we follow this line of reasoning through to the end – racism. We tend to live with it rather uncaringly and unconsciously – unless of course we are of German-African origin. And it is precisely at this point that Obama’s success changes us as well. The day that Obama has the Democratic nomination in the bag, cracks will begin to appear in our collective innocence. It will shatter completely when a Black family moves into the White House in January 2009. And this shift in awareness which would go hand-in-hand with our shattered innocence, would not bypass the rest of Europe. Suddenly we would have to ask ourselves questions we have never asked before. Indeed – what would it mean to us if the child or grandchild of an African became a candidate for the chancellorship? The answer is a recognition that unless we want a society in which skin color predetermines the awarding of offices and influence, much of Europe will have to change its mindset.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. election.
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