by DoDo
Tue Nov 11th, 2008 at 06:32:07 AM EST
I emphasized before that one real benefit I see in Obama's election is working at the symbolic level: that the Superpower elects a Black President projects the image of global social/racial mobility (not so much domestically or in Europe as in the Third World). However, there could have been another narrative, and that I don't see it mentioned much also says something about where we are.
It's the same with all three men who made the biggest impression by getting on the top of their respective, previously white-men-only field: golf champion Tiger Woods, new Formula One champ Lewis Hamilton, and US President-elect Barack Obama are all of mixed descent.
Woods' origins go back to China, Thailand, the Netherlands, Native Americans and African Americans in just three generations. Hamilton's fater is the son of black Grenadans, his mother is a white Englishwoman. Obama's father is Kenyan (to boot, of the Luo ethnicity, which developed at the uncertain margin of "black" and "white"/Semite), his mother white American.
These stories could have been the story of what further mixing of human diversity can add up to. Instead, all three are considered "black".
Good discussion here - afew
Update [2008-11-8 15:39:8 by DoDo]: Read Metatone's comment -- apparently, I stole this diary from his mind!