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Barack Obama changing the face of America
KEN CHAPLIN
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The year was 1960 and I was travelling by train from Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana - part of a tour under a journalist fellowship sponsored by the United States government. The coaches were segregated. As I looked at the passengers in the "coloured" (black) coach they looked like caged birds.
The train stopped at Baton Rouge where the railway station was divided in two sections - one for "whites" and the other for "coloured". When we reached New Orleans, there was another division along colour lines at the railway station. The scenes dramatised race relations in the southern parts of the USA since the abolition of slavery in 1865. It was my first visit to America, "land of the free and the home of the brave" - supposedly. The Black Americans (now called African Americans) were putting up an epic struggle against the colour bar and for equality and justice. This was the struggle in which Marcus Garvey, now one of Jamaica's national heroes, participated while living in the USA.
Over the next 20 years I visited the US south twice again on leader fellowships awarded by the US government. Those visits took me to many southern states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas. In those 20 years a great deal of progress had been made by blacks.
Led by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, they fought the doctrine of separate but equal education and won. They fought race segregation in public education facilities and won. These two historic victories and the power of education were the driving force for the progress of Black Americans. They grasped the opportunities and importance of education which also helped them to understand better the nature of politics. They began registering to vote and the system produced legislators as well as statesmen and stateswomen like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, distinguished educators and many world-class sportsmen. The fight against race discrimination in many areas was prolonged and often bloody. Martin Luther King Jnr, hero of the black movement, led the fight with massive marches in Alabama and Washington DC. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus and became a heroine. Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael were revolutionaries in the Black Power Movement. And there were a lot of other heroes, including white Americans, some of whom died in the struggle. In the last 20 years I have visited the south on my own and have seen further progress of Black Americans in almost every field of human endeavour. Yet there is still more work to be done to improve the lives of more black people.
One of the Black Americans who has risen to unprecedented heights through education is Barack Obama who is running neck-and-neck with Senator Hillary Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton in the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. The contest is of historic proportion.
Obama is seeking to become the first black president of the USA while Clinton wants to become the first woman president. Obama is the son of a black economist from Kenya and a white American mother, a teacher from Kansas.
Obama, like his wife Michelle, is a Harvard University Law School graduate. He is the senator for Illinois, and four years ago he delivered the main speech at the Democratic Party's Convention which stunned the world for its eloquence. In the election campaign he has created a black and white coalition on the premise of change. His campaign message: "Change, Yes, We Can" has resonated among Democrats of all classes. At some of his campaign meetings, whites outnumber blacks. He has drawn a road map that has changed the face of America, perhaps forever, even if he does not make it to the White House.
Obama appeals to upscale voters, African Americans, young people (both black and white), and liberals. His victories in such bastions of race discrimination and hatred as South Carolina and Alabama, where a large number of white people voted for him, were described as a phenomenon and a miracle by Americans. The finance for his campaign is provided by 600,000 grass-roots people from around the country, while Clinton's campaign funds dwindled and she had to put US$5 million of her own money into the campaign. The growth of Obama's finance means that he has been able to offer a promotional campaign superior to Clinton's.
Clinton appeals mostly to middle-class white women, older voters, Hispanics and lower-income people. Obama's strong point is that he brings hope and inspiration to people. Many of the family of the late President John F Kennedy endorse him because he is the most inspiring leader since JFK.
Clinton claims she has more experience being a senator for many years. Each has pledged to bring home the troops from Iraq within a few months after becoming president. To Obama's powerful message of change, Clinton countered by saying that she has the experience to effect change. She says there is little difference between them in economic terms, health care and the war in Iraq. Clinton says the difference is in speech vs solution and hope vs action. The campaign became unpleasant at times. Bill Clinton played the race card once, but he was pilloried by sections of the American media and had to apologise. Some of Obama's supporters referred to her husband's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky in the White House while he was president which led Hillary to declare that nothing like that would happen again if she became president.
The contest looks as if it might continue on the floor of the Democratic Party's convention where delegates selected by millions of popular voters at primaries and caucuses and 800 super delegates, including party leaders, congressional representatives and special interest people, will battle it out on the conference floor to determine who the presidential nominee will be. If there is a close contest the super delegates could well determine the nominee which would be an undemocratic process in a Democratic Party. All delegates to the convention should come from the primaries and caucuses. But the small number of super delegates will not be the determining factor. Up to yesterday the race was wide open.
KEN CHAPLIN
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The year was 1960 and I was travelling by train from Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana - part of a tour under a journalist fellowship sponsored by the United States government. The coaches were segregated. As I looked at the passengers in the "coloured" (black) coach they looked like caged birds.
The train stopped at Baton Rouge where the railway station was divided in two sections - one for "whites" and the other for "coloured". When we reached New Orleans, there was another division along colour lines at the railway station. The scenes dramatised race relations in the southern parts of the USA since the abolition of slavery in 1865. It was my first visit to America, "land of the free and the home of the brave" - supposedly. The Black Americans (now called African Americans) were putting up an epic struggle against the colour bar and for equality and justice. This was the struggle in which Marcus Garvey, now one of Jamaica's national heroes, participated while living in the USA.
Over the next 20 years I visited the US south twice again on leader fellowships awarded by the US government. Those visits took me to many southern states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Texas. In those 20 years a great deal of progress had been made by blacks.
Led by the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, they fought the doctrine of separate but equal education and won. They fought race segregation in public education facilities and won. These two historic victories and the power of education were the driving force for the progress of Black Americans. They grasped the opportunities and importance of education which also helped them to understand better the nature of politics. They began registering to vote and the system produced legislators as well as statesmen and stateswomen like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, distinguished educators and many world-class sportsmen. The fight against race discrimination in many areas was prolonged and often bloody. Martin Luther King Jnr, hero of the black movement, led the fight with massive marches in Alabama and Washington DC. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus and became a heroine. Angela Davis and Stokely Carmichael were revolutionaries in the Black Power Movement. And there were a lot of other heroes, including white Americans, some of whom died in the struggle. In the last 20 years I have visited the south on my own and have seen further progress of Black Americans in almost every field of human endeavour. Yet there is still more work to be done to improve the lives of more black people.
One of the Black Americans who has risen to unprecedented heights through education is Barack Obama who is running neck-and-neck with Senator Hillary Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton in the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party. The contest is of historic proportion.
Obama is seeking to become the first black president of the USA while Clinton wants to become the first woman president. Obama is the son of a black economist from Kenya and a white American mother, a teacher from Kansas.
Obama, like his wife Michelle, is a Harvard University Law School graduate. He is the senator for Illinois, and four years ago he delivered the main speech at the Democratic Party's Convention which stunned the world for its eloquence. In the election campaign he has created a black and white coalition on the premise of change. His campaign message: "Change, Yes, We Can" has resonated among Democrats of all classes. At some of his campaign meetings, whites outnumber blacks. He has drawn a road map that has changed the face of America, perhaps forever, even if he does not make it to the White House.
Obama appeals to upscale voters, African Americans, young people (both black and white), and liberals. His victories in such bastions of race discrimination and hatred as South Carolina and Alabama, where a large number of white people voted for him, were described as a phenomenon and a miracle by Americans. The finance for his campaign is provided by 600,000 grass-roots people from around the country, while Clinton's campaign funds dwindled and she had to put US$5 million of her own money into the campaign. The growth of Obama's finance means that he has been able to offer a promotional campaign superior to Clinton's.
Clinton appeals mostly to middle-class white women, older voters, Hispanics and lower-income people. Obama's strong point is that he brings hope and inspiration to people. Many of the family of the late President John F Kennedy endorse him because he is the most inspiring leader since JFK.
Clinton claims she has more experience being a senator for many years. Each has pledged to bring home the troops from Iraq within a few months after becoming president. To Obama's powerful message of change, Clinton countered by saying that she has the experience to effect change. She says there is little difference between them in economic terms, health care and the war in Iraq. Clinton says the difference is in speech vs solution and hope vs action. The campaign became unpleasant at times. Bill Clinton played the race card once, but he was pilloried by sections of the American media and had to apologise. Some of Obama's supporters referred to her husband's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky in the White House while he was president which led Hillary to declare that nothing like that would happen again if she became president.
The contest looks as if it might continue on the floor of the Democratic Party's convention where delegates selected by millions of popular voters at primaries and caucuses and 800 super delegates, including party leaders, congressional representatives and special interest people, will battle it out on the conference floor to determine who the presidential nominee will be. If there is a close contest the super delegates could well determine the nominee which would be an undemocratic process in a Democratic Party. All delegates to the convention should come from the primaries and caucuses. But the small number of super delegates will not be the determining factor. Up to yesterday the race was wide open.
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