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Black history in the making
published: Wednesday | February 20, 2008
Elements in our influential neighbour to the north have designated February every year as Black History Month, but I think you will agree that the USA is making Black history right now in the surge of support among Whites for Senator Barack Hussein Obama Jr as he campaigns to become the Democratic candidate for President of the United States of America.
Visionary though he was, one wonders whether the Rev Martin Luther King Jr in his wildest dreams would have believed that 40 years after his death a person of African descent would have risen so far in still predominantly white America. Should anyone have told Black militants such as Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael or Huey Newton (of the Black Panther Party) about Obama, one might have been told to get off a hallucinogenic high.
Of course Obama is not from the mainstream African-American community, descendants of slaves emancipated in 1865; his father was born in Nyanza Province, Kenya, of Luo ethnicity. Unlike Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young, Obama's political career is not rooted in the civil rights movement which challenged white supremacy in the USA; this might explain his support among whites.
Obama's 'black' credentials have been called into question by American blacks, especially when he makes statements like: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me - that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk - barely registered in my mind."
Racial implications
One US black writer has warned against drawing favourable racial implications from Obama's political rise. "Lumping us all together," wrote Debra Dickerson, "erases the significance of slavery and continuing racism while giving the appearance of progress".
Of interest is that in post-9/11 USA with its strong anti-Muslim sentiments, Senator Barack Hussein Obama Jr should have reached so far. He describes his father as being "raised a Muslim", but a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met. His mother's second husband was an Indonesian, and young Obama spent part of his early childhood in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. Obama himself is a Christian, a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1988.
I am interested to see the level of interest Obama's candidacy is generating among Jamaicans; race and colour remain a serious topic in the undercurrent of Jamaica, but still not suitable for open discussion. So many Jamaicans want Obama to win - because he is black. This tells me how important race and colour remain in Jamaica, especially considering Obama's openly stated positions on homosexuality and gay marriage, topics which evoke violent opposition from most Jamaicans.
Support for homosexuality
Obama is, after all, a member of the Democratic Party, which is liberal on the subject of homosexuality. So it should be no surprise to anyone that Obama stated on March 15, 2007: "I do not agree ... that homosexuality is immoral".
I mention all this to show how matters of race outweigh almost all others in Jamaica - that so many would support Obama because he is black, despite his clear support for homosexuality and gay marriage.
Obama came to the fore when he wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National convention in Boston. He there said: "The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States: Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America".
We Jamaicans need to remember that, in the end, Obama is an American, and Black or not, his election will be a new chapter in American history before it is a new chapter in Black history.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and environmentalist.
published: Wednesday | February 20, 2008
Elements in our influential neighbour to the north have designated February every year as Black History Month, but I think you will agree that the USA is making Black history right now in the surge of support among Whites for Senator Barack Hussein Obama Jr as he campaigns to become the Democratic candidate for President of the United States of America.
Visionary though he was, one wonders whether the Rev Martin Luther King Jr in his wildest dreams would have believed that 40 years after his death a person of African descent would have risen so far in still predominantly white America. Should anyone have told Black militants such as Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael or Huey Newton (of the Black Panther Party) about Obama, one might have been told to get off a hallucinogenic high.
Of course Obama is not from the mainstream African-American community, descendants of slaves emancipated in 1865; his father was born in Nyanza Province, Kenya, of Luo ethnicity. Unlike Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young, Obama's political career is not rooted in the civil rights movement which challenged white supremacy in the USA; this might explain his support among whites.
Obama's 'black' credentials have been called into question by American blacks, especially when he makes statements like: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me - that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk - barely registered in my mind."
Racial implications
One US black writer has warned against drawing favourable racial implications from Obama's political rise. "Lumping us all together," wrote Debra Dickerson, "erases the significance of slavery and continuing racism while giving the appearance of progress".
Of interest is that in post-9/11 USA with its strong anti-Muslim sentiments, Senator Barack Hussein Obama Jr should have reached so far. He describes his father as being "raised a Muslim", but a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met. His mother's second husband was an Indonesian, and young Obama spent part of his early childhood in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. Obama himself is a Christian, a member of Trinity United Church of Christ since 1988.
I am interested to see the level of interest Obama's candidacy is generating among Jamaicans; race and colour remain a serious topic in the undercurrent of Jamaica, but still not suitable for open discussion. So many Jamaicans want Obama to win - because he is black. This tells me how important race and colour remain in Jamaica, especially considering Obama's openly stated positions on homosexuality and gay marriage, topics which evoke violent opposition from most Jamaicans.
Support for homosexuality
Obama is, after all, a member of the Democratic Party, which is liberal on the subject of homosexuality. So it should be no surprise to anyone that Obama stated on March 15, 2007: "I do not agree ... that homosexuality is immoral".
I mention all this to show how matters of race outweigh almost all others in Jamaica - that so many would support Obama because he is black, despite his clear support for homosexuality and gay marriage.
Obama came to the fore when he wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National convention in Boston. He there said: "The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States: Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America".
We Jamaicans need to remember that, in the end, Obama is an American, and Black or not, his election will be a new chapter in American history before it is a new chapter in Black history.
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and environmentalist.
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