BLACK and WHITE: North Americans Aren’t Ready to Be Colorblind
March 4th, 2008
By WILLIAM KERN
![The Telegraph, U.K.]](http://worldmeets.us/images/hillaryobamagon_telegraph.gif)
Rather than signaling the onset of a post-racial society, does Obama’s success herald the dawn of a new American ‘ethnopolitics’? Mirko Lauer of the Peruvian newspaper La Republica writes, ‘Governor Kenneth Blackwell, an Ohio politician who has won many victories said in 2006: ‘We’re at a historic moment, and in a position to win nominations and break stereotypes.’ He’s implying that it’s precisely Blackness that is beginning to win elections.’ Lauer goes on to point out, ‘the real change in U.S. politics will be an extension of ethnopolitics as long practiced by Whites to their own advantage.’
By Mirko Lauer.
Translated By Halszka Czarnocka
February 28, 2008
Peru - La Republica - Original Article (Spanish)
As Barack Obama inches closer to the Democratic nomination (this morning’s betting gives him an 82 percent chance), the question of whether a Black candidate can win a United States presidential election comes into sharper focus. Hillary Clinton’s people, believe it or not, have begun to disseminate photos of Obama in ethnic garb, something between African and Muslim.
[Editor’s Note: In the photo (right), Senator Obama donned the garb of a Somali elder during a visit near the Somali border, on diplomatic mission to Kenya in 2006.]
The Blacks now constitute 11 percent of the electorate, and it’s unlikely that they’ll all vote for Obama. Among other reasons, this is because people of color are very diverse in terms of class, culture, ideology and political affiliation. There are Blacks for Hillary, and some are even with Republicans. If Obama wins the nomination, in this regard he may end up quite alone.
Strangely, in the tea leaves of the moment, it’s not the White vote that is perceived as the biggest stumbling block for Obama, but the Latino vote. Indeed, Latinos have a very competitive relationship with African-Americans, have a political agenda of their own, and a distrust for progressivism common to nearly all immigrants.
The progressive analysis posits that this election is very different in terms of race and gender. The idea is that many voters will be willing to elect a Black or a woman solely on the basis of political image or the merit of their proposals. Yet this same electorate has consistently elected conservatives of all kinds.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. elections.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Feminism, Progressives, Cartoons, Hispanics, Elections, Democracy, Black/African-American, Newspapers, Newsweek Blogitics, Primaries, Affirmative Action, Journalism, Hypocrisy, John McCain, Places, Internet News Media, Minorities, Race, Gender, 2008 Elections, Democrats, Americas - N & S, Racism, Sexism, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Republicans, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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