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Barack Obama's campaign may have stalled in New Hampshire but his phenomenon already puts the British political hierarchy to shame. He could yet be America's first black president. But the US already has a black Secretary of State and an Asian Secretary of Labor (both women) and a Latino Attorney General, all appointed by the supposedly reactionary President Bush. Previously, Colin Powell headed its armed forces.
These figures all rose unassisted by affirmative action and without playing the race card. The continuing excitement around Obama is just a continuation of post-war America's progressive momentum.
America's open, forward-looking culture puts ours to shame. The British Cabinet is entirely white, as is the Tory front bench, and none of America's seven million Muslims has yet blown themselves up on the subway citing Iraq as a justification. While America's potential next leader is mixed-race, raised in Asia, Britain's equivalent is an Old Etonian aristocrat. Both are champions for "change" but while Obama physically embodies it, David Cameron only personifies the past.
Some dismiss Obama's blackness as being merely symbolic. But symbolism is often more powerful than policy. Mrs Thatcher was no exponent of feminism but successful women everywhere owe something to the way she proved herself stronger than her male contemporaries. If America makes a symbolic gesture and elects a black president, that would also reverberate around the globe.
America's national character has always been about self-renewal, while ours has become a fixation with the old. A black presidency wouldn't be a radical shift in America's identity but its truest manifestation: as Obama said, his story is possible "only in America". Sadly, David Cameron would be equally right if he said that "only in Britain" could a man like him emerge from nowhere to become prime minister.
We should ask ourselves why our major politicians all look the same and what this says about us. The presence of minorities in high office isn't just a feelgood nod to multiculturalism; it shows how open a nation is to fresh perspectives. It is, as Obama says, a statement of hope.
A nation hungry for change produces leaders of every sort. Looking at the Tory and Labour front benches makes you wonder how hopeful Britain actually is and how much change it really wants.
Reader views (3)
Lies, damn lies and statistics, and a good dose of British cynicism thrown in for good measure. Love it!
It's easy to forget that real positive change can only happen on an individual level, and that we all have our own positive individual contributions to make to society, however insignificant and small these actions may seem in the greater scheme.
It is far too easy to pontificate and finger-point, and rely on leaders, elected via what is both in the UK and US a questionable 'democratic' process, to make those changes for you, and then blame them because the world isn't quite how you wanted it to be.
- Colin Mansell, London, UK, 12/06/2008 12:23
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Well, maybe the reason why there are more ethnic minority politicians in America is because there are more ethnic minority people in America? The US has 12.1% black, 14.5% Latino in their population breakdown. The UK has 2% black and 3.6% Asian (Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi). The British cabinet has 21 members and the last cabinet had one black female member (Baroness Amos). This is in line with the black/Asian proportion of the population. Given the percentages, the article by Mr Dhaliwal displays a lack of basic understanding - think (and try doing a little research) before you write.
One would expect politicians to randomly develop from the wider population and given the proportion of those who are white in the overall British population, one would expect the majority to be white. Oddities that one could observe the high proportion of trade unionists/teachers/college lecturers on the left and the proportion of public schoolboys/lawyers/management consultants on the right in the UK, but similar observations can be made of US polls trial lawyers on the left and scions of privilege on the right. But, let us not pretend that the US with its massive ethnic minorities (25%+ for blacks and latinos alone) is in any way comparable to the UK. (9% for all ethnic groups).
- Ken, Oxford, UK, 09/01/2008 18:13
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The UK already had its Obama Barack moment. Remember this guy Tony Blair? You know, all personality and rhetoric and absolutley no idea what to do when he came to power, because he went more or less straight from being an opposition back bench to Prime Minister.
I suspect that Obama is more intelligent than Blair, and certainly not as corrupt, but perhaps his meltdown last night was more a result of the fact that after using the words 'change' and 'hope' a few million times, he had nothing else to say about how all this change and hope was going to materialise, and finally the voters in New Hampshire sussed him.
Pity the voters here did not suss Blair before it was too late.
- Stephen Rothbart, Prague, Czech Republic, 09/01/2008 14:29
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