Barack Obama: It’s All About Race

IAN Leslie loosk at how the UK media handles Obama and all that post-racial politics. There aren’t even any Jews:

Here’s the thing: race isn’t about genetics. At least it’s about a whole lot more than that. Being black or white is about how people see you - and what they call you.  Obama is black because society says he’s black. He’s black to white racists. And he’s black to every black child growing up in America. If that seems arbitrary, then, duh, that’s the problem. Some people come off arbitrarily worse than others.

And that’s it. Unless you’re: 

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown - she claims it would an insult to Obama’s mother to call him black. Is his mother blind?

Rod Liddle:

The notion persisted that despite spending ten times the amount of money on his campaign that John McCain spent, and having in some states 50 times the number of staff, more TV ads and the support of Hollywood and the liberal media elite, Barack Obama somehow won against the odds. But in fact the issue of race favoured Obama much more than it favoured John McCain.

Says Leslie:

Well, apart from if-it-was-so-easy-how-come-there-have-only-been-three-black-senators-since-Reconstruction (and none of them called Hussein)…isn’t the fact of race favouring Obama (at least in part) the very thing worth celebrating?

Indeed. He won because he was black. It’s ever been so…

Toby Young:

I don’t get it. I mean, am I the only person in the world who’s noticed that Barack Obama isn’t black? He’s bi-racial. I don’t see why his election has prompted such an orgy of self-congratulation in America.

He doesn’t get it.

Simon Hoggart:

It’s hard to forget that at first African-Americans didn’t greatly care for him, even though he was, literally, an African American. Like Colin Powell, he hadn’t undergone the American slave experience and for a long time didn’t quite count. He also doesn’t sound black.

Great stuff.

Meanwhile, Anorak’s man in NY picks up on the vibe…

Anorak

Posted: 18th, November 2008 | In: Politicians Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink