Dear Editor,
Barack Obama deserves applause on winning the US presidency for a well-run campaign. The Obama win is of historic significance marking the first time a non-white has won the White House, transcending the barrier of race. It shows that the presidency is no longer for white folks exclusively as had happened since 1789. The Obama victory shows that anyone can win the presidency if one is intelligent, articulate, bright and smart.
It is not certain his victory has broken the back of racial politics in America but his victory has opened the political environment for anyone aspiring to higher office, regardless of ethnicity and economic status. Hopefully, it marks the beginning of a process where the ethnic or religious identity of the individual will no longer be relevant criteria for the presidency.
The Obama victory also has implications for immigrants like those who come from Guyana and the Caribbean. Obama is the son of a Kenyan immigrant and his winning the US presidency shows that the children of immigrants can have big dreams and can successfully run for high office. In a commentary in Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria, himself an immigrant and the magazine’s editor, said an Obama victory would open opportunities for his son, Omar to aspire to become President. It is the central reason why most immigrant communities supported Obama.
In sum, the Obama victory will make minorities believe that the highest public offices are open to them. Already, people are talking about an Indian-American President, Bobby Jindal, although I think this is a very long shot. The victory is a huge step in transcending the tragic history of the oppression of minorities through segregation and Jim Crow laws. It is hoped that it will encourage greater participation by minorities at all levels of the American political process and maybe even the rest of the world.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
Obama is now the first black president of America, even though he is 50% black and 50% white American and was raised and nurtured by his white grand parents, we people of color have now adopted him as belonging to our half of the color spectrum. In my mind, that is a part of our racist tendencies at play right there.
It is of popular belief that racism, in America is a white thing, and they and only they are racist. I have never met a racist recently, no one claims to be a racist anymore, but right here we find Mr, Bisram mentioning “It is not certain his victory has broken the back of racial politics in America” implying that only whites indulge in this practice.
He has even now gone out on a limb, suggesting an Indo American future candidate by name. Why not a black Guyanese candidate or Hispanic or Russian? and why suddenly the American candidacy is all about people of color? Why suddenly a future white candidate is no longer a consideration?
I’ll tell you why my friends, it is because racism lurks in our very minds and souls, no matter how thinly we try to disguise it. White people in America will no longer allow this badge of dishonor to be strung around their necks, and we can no longer point it at them alone, when it festers in the heart and minds of all of us.
Mr. Bisram’s entire article is slanted towards racism, pure and simple. May I remind him that white people exist, live and work in this country too, and bust their chops every day like the rest of us to pay their mortgages and send their kids to college.
Obama is the president of the American people, lets stop making his achievement a racial circus. Please.
Joe.
Joe, I agree with you on Vishnu’s racist tone. I think Vishnu, as usual, is full of hype and uses every opportunity to push his agenda. I disagree with you on trying to redefine Obama because I think you are ignoring Obama’s self-proclaimed identity and the identity factor in the USA.
Mr. Bisram and his political “malarchi” have been totally discredited during his recent prognostications on the US elections. It was obvious that this man had no opinions of his own and was merely reading the prevailing commentaries in the US and regurgitating the information as his opinions. His commentaries were anti-Obama and he seemed hell bent on raining on the black people’s parade. He tried to disguise his prejudiced and jaundiced views as neutral comments but did not fool anyone. Black people throughout the world have the right to be proud of Obama’s candidacy and presidency. Bisram should give up on this polling thing as well as future political commentaries. Obama is president and some may say god. His letters did a great disservice to many decent and right thinking Indo-Guyanese in and out of Guyana.
Come on Joe, be honest…In the USA one drop of Black blood makes you black. It was not Obama who gave himself that identity, he was born into a soceity that identifies him as Black. His white mother and grandparents nurtured him to be a good, decent, citizen inspite of his blackness. His mother eposed him at an early age to his black identity through literature, drama and theatre. On the campaign trail he NEVER denied his blackness and in fact wore it with pride, so please let’s not re-define Obama’s identity for our own selfish and narrow politics where race is seen only as negative and not something to be proud of. The USA media obession with Obama is the result of his Historic nature-i.e. his race as a Black man and being elected the first Black President. Don’t let’s fool ourselves.
In Guyana as we try to resolve the rancidness of race and race hate let’s leave or emulate African Americans and other Americans who wear theirs’ with pride.
Raj,
your arguments are indeed factual, but are we not being somewhat hipocritical, in lauding him for his blackness and color and nothing else? Are we not indulging in the same type of behaviour that we once accused white America, of participating in and are we so naive as to ignore the role that white America played in the election of Obama?
An American woman (I do not recall her name) once said that if elections ever did change anything, it would have been illegal. I am not one that is fooling myself by any of this, the proof is in the pudding and that has still to materialise.
Let wait and see and hope that our joy is not turned into sorrow.
Joe.
Overwhelmingly, we do not want any more immigrants here. The illegal types.Legal immigration is acknowledged. In January next year 2009, Federal jobs will use a data base to determine a person’s legal status, even those who slipped through the cracks years before and are now employed,and deny work to all illegals in the country.
“the tragic history of oppression of minorities through segregation and Jim Crow laws”
Mr. Bisram, what minorities about whom you write? You and your ilk ride on the backs of African Americans while shouting about civil rights. Yes Mr. Bisram, your kind were in their India, China, Pakistan etc. looking on while the African American suffered over 400 years of slavery and degradation as a people. Were you and your ilk in the struggle then?
Tell Mr. Jindal that Barack Obama has given him the leverage to use his given name now. Ha!
That was well said “Georgie”!
Georgie, I do not know where you learnt your history from. But during the 400 years of American slavery the British empire controlled all of the countries you mentioned and more. Weather you were slave, indentured servant or “free” non white, life was not easy under the British system of conquer and control every one suffered and many fought bravely for independence.
Yes, we immigrants are enjoying the freedoms brought about by the Black American struggle for justice and human dignity, but there were others who hardly get mentioned, there were the American Indian and the Chinese who were brought in to build the railroads.
I urge you to read “The peoples history of the Americas” to get a true picture of the suffering anaihalation and genocide of the original peoples of the Americas.
Joe.
Re: “It is not certain his victory has broken the back of racial politics in America but his victory has opened the political environment for anyone aspiring to higher office, regardless of ethnicity and economic status. Hopefully, it marks the beginning of a process where the ethnic or religious identity of the individual will no longer be relevant criteria for the presidency.
The Obama victory also has implications for immigrants like those who come from Guyana and the Caribbean. Obama is the son of a Kenyan immigrant and his winning the US presidency shows that the children of immigrants can have big dreams and can successfully run for high office.”
First of all it will be good to know where “Vishnu Bisram” got his immigration facts on President-Elect Barack Obama’s father from since it only states here that President-Elect “Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Obama is the son of Barack Obama Sr. from Kenya, and a white mother, Ann Dunham, from Kansas. Both of his parents are now deceased.
The couple met while they were studying at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manca. They later married. Their marriage was short; when Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father left Hawaii to pursue his Ph.D. at Harvard, and later returned to Kenya. Obama did see his father again when he was ten years old.
His mother’s second marriage to Indonesian born Lolo Soetoro resulted in Obama and his mother’s move to Jakarta in 1967. His mother and Soetoro had a daughter together. When Obama was ten years old, he returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents; his mother later joined him. He attended the prestigious prep school Punahou Academy, graduating in 1978…”
http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/politicians/a/bio_obama_b.htm
Secondly, with individuals such as Martin Luther King JR.; Marcus Garvey, L. F. S. Burnham and many others – the “die” was already cast for the social, economic and political future for the African Diaspora; and, a “sea-change wave” expertly ridden by President-Elect Barack Obama.
No! The Africans were brought here as slaves and they fought for their freedom. That is a fact. Don’t try to rewrite the history of the African in the US. Enough!