And although it seems heaven sent /
We ain’t ready, to see a black President
– Tupac Shakur

They might be ready now.

In a few hours, assuming there isn’t a repeat of the drama of 2000, it should be clear whether or not the United States will elect a black man as President for the first time in its history. Judging from the polls and from all that I have heard it seems likely that Barack Obama will indeed win.

But I’m not here to talk to Americans about their own business. I’m not an American citizen so I can’t even cast a vote. However, as the United States is presently the most powerful and the most wealthy nation on the face of the earth, their election result will have an effect on the rest of the world. This is what I want to discuss.

Michael Parenti, in his book, Democracy for the Few, describes the US election as “the greatest show on Earth.” This time they have really outdone themselves. This show has gone on for years. From the early speculation about who would run for the Democratic nomination to the long battle between Obama and Hillary Clinton, and the last minute wild-card insertion of Sarah Palin, there has been no shortage of drama. However the lesson Parenti wants you to draw from all the political pyrotechnics is that it’s all a diversion.

Did you ever wonder how a country as massive as the United States can only have two parties? That in a country with 305 million people there are only two choices? Well unbeknownst to the majority of Americans, they do have more choices. Have you heard about the Green Party presidential candidate, a black woman named Cynthia McKinney? What about Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr, and Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader? Yes. I’m not making this up, they are all running for President of the United States today along with Obama and McCain. Why haven’t you heard about these people? Simply put, they have been made invisible by design.

In the words of Noam Chomsky, the Democrats and Republicans are essentially factions of the same party; The Business Party. The two parties collude to maintain a monopoly on the American political system. Take the debate process for example, did you know that the Obama and McCain campaigns have negotiated a contract that determines who participates in the debates and even what the topics raised will be?

So, what is the debate structure that they agreed upon? What topics are off-limits? George Farah of Open Debates, a non-profit organization with a self-explanatory name, says

“We don’t know the extent of the rules, because, precisely because, the Obama and McCain campaigns have absolutely refused to release the detailed contract that dictates the terms of [the] debate.”

In other words, it’s a secret contract. The game isn’t so scary when you can make all the rules. One of those rules though is obviously the exclusion of third parties voices.

But isn’t the United States a democracy? Perhaps “Plutocracy” is a better word for their system. Parenti says that “the two-party [American] electoral system performs the essential function of helping to legitimate the existing social order.” To boil it down even further, Americans don’t even have two choices.

This is not to say that there is no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, because there is. It’s just not so wide a difference as is commonly thought. Instead of night and day, think of the difference between raspberry and strawberry ice-cream. If Obama wins, a few extra dollars of the budget will go to social projects and poor people, while the billions that fund their enormous war machine will continue essentially unchanged.

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What is important is not so much what men say when they are anxious for power but what they actually do once that power is conferred on them.
– Robert M. Spector

Barack Obama is a phenomenon. His speeches have inspired people to a degree that I have never seen before. If I didn’t know better I would think that every black person on the planet will be voting with their hearts today. Take a look at this website, it was set up by a Nigerian friend of mine showing Obama posing as myriad fictional and historical heroes. I have a Bahamian friend who has compared Obama to Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King Jr. He nearly went as far as to compare Obama to Jesus Christ.

With catchy slogans like “Change we can believe in,” “Yes, we can,” the operative word being “believe,” Obama has developed and nourished something that is akin to a global cult following. Delusions of Obama as the world’s messiah are fair to no one, least of all to him.

He may well turn out to be a “great [US] president”, but we, in the rest of the world, need to remember that US presidents don’t work for us. They have their own country’s national interests, however they define them, to look after. We need to remember that the foreign policy of the United States is not something that is about to change. Remember that if Obama was really about change, he would never have made it this far.

Which brings me to one of the few reasons I appreciate Bush. He has really done well exposing US foreign policy for what it really is: the maintenance of Empire. The war of aggression in Iraq is not some aberration, this has been going on internationally since 1898, and if you ask the Indians and the Mexicans, they would tell you it started a long time before that.

When charismatic presidents take office, Bill Clinton for example, it’s easy to forget that their eloquent words and high sounding rhetoric is a veneer that can mask truly horrific deeds. Whoever becomes the next president will be no different. The Empire must be maintained.

To quote Tupac one last time: “And still I see no changes.”

Diaspora blogger Signifyin' Guyana did her civic duty and voted earlier in the day. While she says there was “not much excitement” to the voting process, the anticipation in her household has been building as her son “has caught the spirit”:

He's only five years old, but he knows something big may happen tonight. So as he waits to go to the polls with his dad, dressed in sweats and a red, white, and blue t-shirt (he dressed himself), I watch with pride, and I hope and pray he's not disappointed.

Another diaspora blogger, Liza from Puerto Rico, said that the voting process was emotional for her:

I got so overwhelmed by this historic moment that I totally lost it. I came out crying from the voting booth.

All my neighbors were asking what was wrong. I couldn't say anything and Mark, who was still around, just said: ‘She's having a moment.'

I just never thought I'd see the day…I can't wait for the election results and for the words ‘Barack Obama is officially the next president of the United States'. I will have lots of tissues handy this time around.

Meanwhile, both Cuban diaspora blogger Babalu and Letters from Grenada are liveblogging the election, one on either side of the political divide. But Barbados is firmly on the Obama bandwagon, with Cheese-on-bread! saying:

Well, this is it. As the pundits like to say, no matter the outcome, history will be made. Apart from the obvious history that would be made with a win by Barack Obama, if John McCain were to (gasp) win he would be the oldest candidate to assume that position.

As Obama himself said yesterday, it will be fun to see how the story ends. His campaign has been phenomenal, and he has certainly gone the distance, something few of us could have dared to dream.

So, as we await the outcome of this heated race, I'll wish both the candidates luck…

The Bajan Dream Project echoes her sentiment:

Barack Obama has already done much for the African American community in the United States, and continues to draw admiration and inspire hope in millions in diverse regions of the World - Barbados not excluded. Whether he wins or loses, a lesson can be learnt from Barack Obama’s candidacy, and his message will redefine history for many minorities who once felt - but can no more feel - that their history as underdogs would forever cement their future as such. For that reason alone - for helping so many to ‘emancipate themselves from mental slavery’ - this candidacy transcends politics.

Havana-based Generation Y notices a change of mood in Cuba:

The street is not the same, nor are the neighbors who usually gossip in the lines at the markets; today they speak of universal themes. They raise their eyebrows and point towards the north, while they make predictions about who will be elected at the polls in the U.S. I don’t remember having lived through such a commotion during the Cuban presidential elections last February.

The cobbler in my building took a stand for one candidate and the old woman who sells flowers has been wearing a shirt with the Obama logo. Our boring trajectory of two presidents in fifty years has exacerbated the curiosity over foreign elections. We also know that the decision of U.S. voters will reverberate here and not so metaphorically as the flutter of a butterfly in the Amazon. he remittances that allow thousands of Cuban families to get to the end of the month come primarily from the other shore, where a portion of this Island lives, and where the insults—“worms,” traitors” and “mafiosos”—have not managed to sever our emotional and family ties. The political discourse of our own leaders would lose effectiveness without the United States in the role of the enemy. Never, as today, has the destiny of Cuba been so clearly separated, and yet so dependent, on what happens ninety miles away.

Still, she has her reservations:

In the face of the “uncertain prognosis” we show inside our country, there are those who assert that today’s results will either launch or derail, definitively, the cart of reforms in Cuba.

I would prefer that we drive ourselves, but very few want to exchange the work of the forecaster for the hard task of making things happen. So when I write this post, the capricious vehicle of change seems to be stuck in a rut at the side of the road. I have my doubts about whether what happens this Tuesday will get it moving.

Bahamian Nicolette Bethel is thrilled to be in New York City for this auspicious day:

Being in the US on election day, especially this election day, is historic.

This election is historic. It’s already been so — the fact that two major contenders for president were visible minorities, albeit in the same party. Whoever wins will make history — the first black president, the first female vice-president, the oldest president. But history has already been made.

She also thinks that the Bahamas could stand to learn a few lessons from the US:

Being on the outside in American elections, watching a fraction of the American people go to the polls and elect leaders whose impact resonated far beyond the borders of the USA, and suffering the consequences of those choices, has not been easy…yes, I voted in the if-the-world-could-vote poll, and yes, I voted for Obama. But I’m above all a Bahamian, and Bahamians above all are pragmatic people, and fundamentally what matters is what have we learned from this process? What have we learned from the involvement of ordinary Bahamians in the Obama campaign? What have we learned from the real chance of real change, and how will that affect us at home?

Because our last election was a joke. We never questioned our candidates about anything likely to affect us and our nation in the long run. We never demanded from them what we have seen from the American candidates. We never dissected the spin, if spin it was; we never educated ourselves in any general sense on issues, on anything that might actually matter. No. We preferred to go along with what the newspapers said, with what the talk shows said, voting from emotion rather than reason, allowing both parties to get away with sheer idiocy that has very little to do with the world in which we find ourselves.

But fellow Bahamian Rick Lowe is not quite convinced:

It looks like Barak Obama will win the presidency of the United States today and history will be made…There is no doubt that he has a great delivery and a pleasant way about him. But that does not change the circumstances he will face in office which will all but guarantee he cannot fulfil his promises.

I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that he starts to back track in his inauguration speech as the economic reality of his political promises start to set in. And this I believe will lead to dissatisfaction with his presidency sooner rather than later. At the end of the day we all need to wish Obama well, and hope that his economic advisors steer him away from these self destructive policies as The Bahamas is highly dependent on the US, and this is unlikely to change in the years ahead.

As the night wears on, the Caribbean, like the rest of the world, will need to wait and see.

Barbados Free Press doesn't mince words:

There is a lot at stake in the US Presidential election that goes far beyond who will be the leader of that country for the next four years. Whether Obama is white, black, coffee or purple doesn’t count anything beside the specter of the United States continuing along it’s current path.

That military-industrial complex has run free since 9/11 and continues to do so. Under the guise of protecting people from Muslim terrorists, the United States government and other world governments have convinced their populations to surrender hard-won freedoms and individual rights. Breaches of the existing human rights and personal freedoms laws by authorities are treated with indifference by all sectors of Western governments - and that includes the Barbados government.

There is much at stake in the US election for Barbados and the rest of the world.

Blogging from Trinidad and Tobago, This Beach Called Life refers to a poll published in The Economist magazine to underscore the fact that the world appears to favour Barack Obama:

I don’t intend to tell Americans who to vote for but the World seems to have made up its mind.

Jamaican blog A Fe Me Page Dis Iyah even posts some videos to prove the extent to which “the Caribbean community supports Barack Obama”, but some bloggers are not comfortable counting their chickens just yet. Numalali, from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, says:

All the indicators point to a victory for Barack Obama. He is ahead on every predictive index. But, can we count on the the polls, the pundits and the predictions? Is America ready for a black man, a black woman, a black family in charge of the White House? Like millions around the world I await with bated breath.

In a follow-up post, Numalali continues:

The whole world is in a frenzy. Both Obama critics and supporters are doing all they they could to either diefy or demonize him. Let us all wait and see what happens on Tuesday.

Womanish Words (from the Bahamas) is optimistic:

Amazing days, America appears to be on the verge of electing a Black president. This is really a ray of light and hope for the world. Obama’s election will change everything. Change is good. I’m grateful to be here to witness it. I grew up electing Black prime ministers. But there I was, keening for a good thirty three seconds at the thought of a new world leader who is actually a good man. And just to make it all the better, he's Black. He's a symbol of a new day dawning, a new generation emerging, a new era beginning. After the tears, I forced myself to remember that it's not over yet.

It certainly isn't over yet. Circles Robinson, blogging from Havana, knows that there is a lot at stake:

The US elections on Tuesday have overshadowed my thoughts. I’m not alone. A lot of people on the island are wondering what’s going to happen, as is a good chunk of the world.

Up until the explosion of the current financial crisis, I firmly believed that John McCain was going to be the next president, the same way that I thought George W. Bush would win reelection in 2004.

The race and terror cards and preference for the old but known seemed to me more powerful than anything the Obama campaign could come up with.

I still fear that McCain has a shot to win, but I’m no longer so sure of my predictions for the US electorate.

There’s a lot of responsibility on the backs of US voters on Tuesday. Cubans like the rest of the world will be watching with angst.

An American living in the Caribbean writes in her blog, Letters from Grenada:

I admit I’m more than a little nervous. I’m a lot nervous.

I can easily recall how casually confident I was in 2000. In 2004 I was fiercely confident, because how could lightning strike twice? (Answer: Easily, if you’re still standing in the same place.)

But it will be different this time! Wednesday’s going to a (real) new morning in America.

Bermudian blogger The Devil Island can't stand the tension and posts one of his signature cartoons to prove it, while his compatriot Breezeblog implores Americans to “do the right thing - for humanity’s sake”:

With just a few hours to go, here’s hoping that Americans finally do the right thing and make history by electing Barack Obama President. They couldn’t possibly screw it up a third time, could they?

Barbados Underground has no problem with calling a win for Obama “by a landslide”:

If we are to judge by the results of our unscientific poll, Obama will be the winner of the USA 2008 Presidential election with over 400 electoral votes. After careful analysis we are prepared to say that Democrat Presidential hopeful Barack Obama will win with 300+ Electoral votes.

It has been an amazing campaign for several reasons. As the world watches, the United States of America seems set to catapult a man of colour into the White House. When it does happen the world maybe changed forever.

Trinidad-based Coffeewallah, who maintains that “every day is history in the making”, concedes that today is a “red letter day” for America:

Whatever happens…there will a first, either first Black American President or first Woman Vice President. I wonder at the American people who constantly cannot understand why the rest of the world “does not like us”, we've seen up close and personal what you really think. Those of us that are a different colour have no illusions at all, as we say in the Caribbean, “your business in the road”. I hope that Barack Obama wins, decisively. What a message that's going to send…

Chookooloonks, a Trinidad diaspora blogger who is also a US citizen, says:

Everything is about to change. Regardless of who wins the election, in my opinion this has been one of the hottest, most contentious races in recent history. Regardless of who wins the election, there will be a new president of the United States, the first new American leader in 8 years, and the results of this election will have global impact. Regardless of who wins the election, things are going to change.

And, for the first time since I became a U.S. citizen 14 years ago, I find myself really emotionally invested in the outcome: dear God, I care. I really, really care.

The opportunity to vote is one of those times when you get to draw a line in the sand, put your stake in the ground, and do whatever other metaphor you can think of that says, “hear me, dammit. I count. I matter. I believe this to be true.” The act of pulling that lever, or pressing that button, or clicking that icon is a very, very powerful thing. Do not believe that your vote doesn't matter. It matters. It so matters.

Caribbean bloggers - most of them anyway - cannot pull that lever, or press that button or click that icon. But they can make their voices heard. Antilles, the weblog of the Caribbean Review of Books, sums it up this way:

Finally: it seems every newspaper and magazine in the world has endorsed one candidate or another…with Obama the overwhelmingly popular choice. Your Antilles blogger, like most of the world's population, can't vote, but feels he has a lot at stake in tomorrow's events. If the CRB were to endorse a candidate, who would it be? The smart, eloquent, cool, confident one who looks like he could be from the Caribbean, of course–that one.

A Jamaican residing in the Cayman Islands, Mad Bull examines the race issue after reading an article in The New York Times in which “Jamaica was held up as an example of racial harmony because the racial majority (black people) elected Edward Seaga (a white man) in as prime minister.” Mad Bull comments:

This was interesting to me in light of the discussion that was taking place in my post of October 16th, which spoke of such things as being an example of the self-hatred and the hatred of all things black that is deeply ingrained in Jamaicans.

I guess its all about how you look at things, isn’t it?

Larry Smith, blogging at Bahama Pundit, says that “with only a week to go before the election, Barack Obama has taken a significant lead over John McCain among American voters. But in the rest of the world he has been a shoo-in for months.” He goes on to quote polls and statistics which suggest that everyone from the Brits to the Germans expect US/European relations to improve under an Obama presidency. Smith then goes on to examine the odds:

Until the financial meltdown changed the game, it was not at all clear that Obama would prevail. An aging military hero paired with an attractive moose-hunting woman seemed to have more appeal to red-blooded Americans than a brown-skinned young lawyer with a foreign name who could easily be depicted as un-American in the traditional sense.

Of greatest interest to the Bahamian blogger, however, are the candidates' policies and their potential effects on his country's economy:

Last year, Obama was part of a bi-partisan effort to pass a bill to stop Americans from using offshore financial centres as tax dodges. If passed, the law would allow the government to take special measures against tax havens and financial institutions that impede US enforcement efforts.

Experts say the US Treasury loses $100 billion a year because of offshore tax evasion. Obama cites this as a basic issue of fairness and integrity, arguing that those who work hard and play by the rules shouldn't be disadvantaged. McCain has opposed cracking down on tax havens, but he has also spoken out against offshore banking practices. He advocates cutting tax rates in the US to make moving offshore less attractive.

He continues:

It is unclear what impact Obama would have on the Bahamian financial sector given the fact that we already have a tax information exchange treaty with the US, but some argue that we will face an “uncomfortable environment.”

Bermudian blogger Vexed Bermoothes feels just as conflicted:

As a symbol of hope and change, Barack Obama has a lot of support in Bermuda…but we must remember that candidate Obama is potentially a major threat to Bermuda.

Bermuda has made huge investments to meet international standards for regulation and transparency in its business sector, and those efforts have been recognised by entities such as the OCED and the IMF.

However, in the US, which is searching for both scapegoats and revenue, Senator Obama has co-sponsored a Bill titled the ‘Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act’ introduced by Senator Carl Levin.

As well as providing a statutory framework to define ‘offshore secrecy jurisdictions’, the Bill includes a list of 34 countries which will be automatically considered as tax havens and targeted by the US Government.

That list includes most of the “business” Caribbean islands, as well as Bermuda.

The Bahama Pundit post goes on to quote Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who says that “an Obama presidency would be ‘a breath of fresh air'.” Smith suggests that his position may be somewhat influenced by the fact that the Manning government “will host the next president to a 34-nation Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain next April” - but goes on to say:

In his Partnership for the Americas policy statement, Obama concedes that US relations with the region have “frayed, as the Bush administration pursued a misguided foreign policy with a myopic focus on Iraq”. He says America has been “negligent to our friends, ineffective with our adversaries and disinterested in the challenges that matter to peoples’ lives”.

He promises to pay more attention to the region by reinstating a special envoy for the Americas. And he vows to liberalise relations with Cuba, engage with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, close the Guantanamo prison, give more aid to Haiti, help the region invest in renewable energy, and expand cooperation on crime and drug trafficking.

Perhaps more significantly, an Obama presidency will be in a position to reform the world's financial architecture in the wake of the current economic turmoil.

Smith sums up his post by saying:

For historical reasons, in terms of what it will mean for American society and for the international community, we look forward to an Obama presidency.

…which suggests that despite the potentially negative effects of Obama's policies on some Caribbean economies, many regional bloggers are still hoping for a black president in the White House.

I’m sure that others have linked to this before me, and I’m coming late to the party, but –

it’s fun.

And rings true.

See for yourself.

This is an open letter to those white women who, despite their proclamations of progressivism, and supposedly because of their commitment to feminism, are threatening to withhold support from Barack Obama in November. You know who you are.

***

First, for those of you threatening to actually vote for John McCain and to oppose Senator Obama, or to stay home in November and thereby increase the likelihood of McCain winning and Obama losing (despite the fact that the latter’s policy platform is virtually identical to Clinton’s while the former’s clearly is not), all the while claiming to be standing up for women…

For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and increase the odds of his winning (despite the fact that he once called his wife the c-word in public and is a staunch opponent of reproductive freedom and gender equity initiatives, such as comparable worth legislation), all the while claiming to be standing up for women…

For those threatening to vote for John McCain or to stay home and help ensure Barack Obama’s defeat, as a way to protest what you call Obama’s sexism (examples of which you seem to have difficulty coming up with), all the while claiming to be standing up for women…

Your whiteness is showing.

Go. Read. Laugh. Think.

Almost as soon as Barack Obama uttered those words in his nomination speech, mainstream media sources simultaneously declared Obama the victor in securing the Democratic Party's nomination. Caribbean bloggers were online with reactions to the history-making news that a black man actually has a chance of winning the race to the White House.

Spirits have generally been high, even though, as Trinidadian blogger Further Thoughts says:

Sure, I can’t vote, but I’m happy to call Obama my nominee. Wonderful news!

Barbadian bloggers are also celebrating. Bajan Global Report admits he has been “falling all over (him)self ever since Senator Obama won the presidential nomination for the the Democratic party last night”, while Barbados Underground is gracious towards Hillary Clinton in her defeat:

Although his opponent Senator Hillary Clinton has not followed the script and cleared the stage for the first African American presidential nominee to take the spotlight, we understand her disappointment.

Meanwhile, Cheese-on-bread! adds:

It will be interesting to see if he chooses Hillary Clinton as his running mate…

But Puerto Rican blogger Liza has no empathy for Hillary, calling her less-than-presidential “non-concession” speech “a lost moment”:

Last night was a truly historic moment and Hillary Clinton made history for all the wrong reasons. Instead of conceding to Barack Obama, instead of declaring him the rightful winner and instead of turning her followers' attention to him as the legitimate nominee, she chose to turn the moment into a show of force against Obama.

Hillary Clinton became lost in her ego and completely oblivious to the powerful, history turning moment that lay right in front of her for the taking. She robbed herself of the opportunity of being the hero, of becoming magnanimous by rising above the petty fray and looking forward to making the once unthinkable happen.

Instead, she is not only continuing the psychological warfare she unleashed on the Obamas for the past 4 months. She is aiding and abetting the Republicans with anti-Obama talking points.

Hillary Clinton wants to fulfill her prediction that Obama will lose in November by making sure she keeps the rancor among her supporters.

Blogging from St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Abeni admits “I wasn't backing any of the contestants but I did enjoy watching history being made” - and goes on to say:

Having gotten this far, I hope the similarity continues and he wins in November. I certainly hope there is no grassy knoll in his future…

While Cuban blogger Babalu agrees that the nomination is historic, he is disappointed in the Democrats' choice:

His policies…are failed ones from the past; from the days of his Democratic icon, Jimmy Carter. All the Dems are in a hoo haa talking about “change” and about how great Obama can give a speech. Heck, Fidel Castro could give a good speech and he certainly brought change to a nation. So now it's time if the man can play with the big boys. He should be treated no different than anyone else. It's time to look beyond the color of the man and to look at his policies, his inexperience, and his judgment and character.

Guest blogger Dan Tanner, over at Dominica Weekly, says he doubted Obama's ability to secure the Democratic presidential nomination because he believed that the US was “too racist”:

I am relieved to learn that I was wrong. Every now and then someone, usually a Democrat, must come along and save capitalism…We can be certain that if elected President, John McCain would continue the failed Bush/Cheney war and economic policies. I hope that Barack Obama will be elected President and that he can somehow, probably with a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, undo the damage that the Bush administration has done to the US, its economy, its military, its position in world opinion and to its Constitution.

And in a very well thought-out post, Bahamian Nicolette Bethel examines what Obama's nomination could mean for the Caribbean region:

The Obama/Hilary competition is more important to my mind for its symbolic value than for anything that it means to me as a Bahamian. I don’t think for one moment that a Barack Obama presidency is going to mean to us what it will mean to Americans. In fact, Obama’s worldview is quite likely to do us in The Bahamas less good than we might think — he’s accepted the realities of the 21st century global economy, and we still have no idea what those are. Strangely enough, if Obama becomes President, our best route to the Americans will be through the much-despised Caribbean.

But that’s by the way.

The race for the Democratic nomination is symbolic because from the beginning it ensured that the next Democratic contender for the American presidency will not be a white man.

Tonight is symbolic because the black man won.

In America.

Let us all take off our hats and stand in awe.

What also fascinates her about the battle to win to Democratic nomination is the fact that “the election was a truly democratic one”, in which citizen media had a role to play:

Forget the spin and the punditry and the experts; nobody has a real clue which way this election is going to go, because nobody has figured out how to translate the discussions that are going on in cyberspace — and that have driven Obama to his victory — into votes. The people, for the first time in what seems forever, are driving the candidates and the spinners and not the other way round.

…which brings her right back to the politics that actually do affect her as a Caribbean citizen:

What saddens me, though, is that we Bahamians have yet to invest our hearts and minds and interests in our own political campaigns and drive those people who imagine they have the right to lead us.

One thing is certain though - the Caribbean may not have a vote in the US presidential election, but it certainly has a voice - and bloggers will continue to closely monitor the political developments that will have an impact (however small) on their everyday lives. There may even be a few lessons to be learned. In the words of Barbados Underground:

It has been a long and exciting campaign and the world watches to see how one of the world’s powerful countries continue to manage a key element in its democracy i.e. the election of a leader.

MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL: And so, to pretend that we can somehow take [race and gender] out of the conversation when a white woman runs against a black man, when she tears up at being sort of beat up by him, when her husband can come in and rally around her and suggest that we need to sort of support her because she’s having difficulties, while Barack Obama is getting death threats, basically lynching threats on him and his family…

I’ve been meaning to put this up for a while. It’s still an excellent debate with some good points to ponder… Is there still a race now anyway?

The white man has convinced us, and some of their own no doubt, that they are a homogenous group. Believe me, if black people did not exist in the world, white people would get on with the far more important work of killing other white people. However, since we do exist and enter their space, we suffice as target practice.

You could have a perfectly mixed and ‘diversified’ sample, and have no actual diversity. Or put another way, a room full of white people can be incredibly diverse. In that room you may have some Jewish people, some from Russia, an Irish descendant from New York, English nobility and members of the Canadian working class and they would in all likelihood, disagree on everything. The myth of racial solidarity is exactly that: A Myth. It was created out of necessity in and around the Caribbean sugar plantations, and has persisted until today. I say this in the hope that Black people will stop talking about “white people” as if they were some monolithic political party, but also in the hope that I can remember to stop talking about “black people”.

If there were no white people in the world, Blackness would not matter, and we would then get to the more important work of remembering why we hate each other. Similarity of color means nothing. Two black people may have nothing to talk about and nothing else in common. The sooner this truth hits us, the sooner we can move on to more profitable stereotyping.

The smokescreen of visual diversity and the political cushion it provides should not be underestimated. People generally assume that color of skin comes along with an ideology. To be Black is to be liberal, and if one lives in the US, a democrat. Black people have rhythm, are athletic and listen to rap music. Right. We also assume that because a certain government administration has x amount of Blacks in high positions, x amount of Latinos, z amount of “non-white” people, it is diverse. You can hire as much of these people as you want and engineer complete visual diversity with every shade of skin under the sun and it could, I emphasize could, mean nothing. All of these visually diverse people who look nothing alike may be intellectual clones.

What does “multi-cultural” even mean? Again, a room full of white people can be multi-cultural. But multi-culturalism is the hot word of the day. The buzz word. Another useless plaything of a word that goes down smooth but has no nutritional value. It’s a politically-correct junk-food tortilla-chip of a word. Multi-culturalism, as far as I can see, only means visual diversity, which is only a useful gauge of telling how many black people are in a room, and as I am arguing, this doesn’t mean much.

I am not saying that we should throw away the quotas and the affirmative action policies; most bureaucrats in their more lucid moments will say that these programs encourage diversity, and perhaps they do. Since we live in a visual society and crave visual stimulation, I guess we will have to settle for visual diversity. Just don’t be surprised when everyone says the same things.

…

I offer you these observations only because they have occurred to me, not because I offer an alternative or even a point. Do you expect me to come up with everything? I am only a writer. I have no credentials other than what you have just read. If I had a PhD would it matter? Or would it take you that much longer to realize that I am full of shit?

If I have a point, it is this: there are forces that exist out there, forces that are shaping our minds, our opinions, our outlook, and the majority – regardless of color – are plugging in and zoning out. To be awake and alert takes effort, RADICAL effort. We need to forget what people say, forget what color they are and watch and remember what they do. The important thing is the degree of correlation between words and deeds. This process takes a lot longer. It takes a lot more work. Your mileage may vary. But maybe, just maybe, you will go a day longer without being duped.

Another one is born every day and I’d hate for it to be you.

The above link will take you to an excellent debate on DemocracyNOW concerning the impact of Barack Obama and the implications of an Obama presidency on black people.

I especially like this quote from Glen Ford:

We’re in this era of firsts, and the ultimate first, a first—possibly a first black president. But we already had two firsts. Colin Powell was one of them, and Condoleezza Rice, his successor as secretary of state [was another]. How did that redound to the benefit of black people for the United States to have a black – put a black face on imperialism, on aggressive war, on violations of international law? How does that make black people look better in the world? Is that the kind of burden that black people want to carry around?

Again, a problem is that Obama, through no fault of his own, has to carry a burden for ‘black people’. And this is whether he wants to or not. Just ask Tiger Woods for his opinion on this. I believe that Obama does deploy his blackness strategically, and so the criticisms are warranted. But as Ford points out, a black-face (I mean this in both senses of the term) on imperialism is not something to hope for.