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For Americans burdened by a sense of history, something once
unthinkable has happened. The United States has elected a black
president.
What has changed in terms of race to enable Democratic candidate
Barack Obama's defeat of Republican John McCain and what might
change as a result?
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said his satisfaction at Obama's
success was conditioned by a sense of history. Jackson witnessed
the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968 and twice ran for
president in the 1980s.
"His (Obama) winning means America's getting better. We are more
mature. We are less anxious around each other," he said in an
interview.
Jackson put the election in the context of the movement to end
racial segregation in the South in the 1950s and 1960s and and win
voting rights for blacks in the teeth of violent opposition.
"I know so many people white, black and Jewish who marched and were
martyred. I wish that those who paid the supreme sacrifice could
see the results of their labors," he said.
One surprise apparent in the earliest primaries in which parties
chose their nominees was the support Obama attracted among whites
voters.
At the same time, black voters were integral to Obama's success,
swinging a number of states in his favor. And Obama went out of his
way to embrace black voters and their concerns, most notably in a
high-profile speech on race in March.
Those factors deal a blow to black scepticism about their role in
politics and a lingering sense of disenfranchisement.
"The first thing Obama's presidency means for black people is, at
least momentarily, a sense of full citizenship," said Melissa
Harris-Lacewell, a political science professor at Princeton
University.
Just as the election could change the way blacks perceive politics
and their place in US society, it could also alter the way they are
perceived, particularly if Obama's administration gains a
reputation for competence.
Leverage
Conservative leader Newt Gingrich said Obama's rise reflected
changes that have already taken place. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and her predecessor Colin Powell proved that
blacks could deal at the highest levels in government, he
said.
"It begins to be accepted that young men and women of color who can
certainly dream the biggest dreams .... America has moved beyond
any narrowly defined sense of racism," said the former Speaker of
the US House of Representatives in an interview.
Stubborn facts, however, point towards persistent inequality that
Obama may struggle to tackle given the downturn facing the US
economy.
Black Americans make up around 13% of the population but earn less
money and are less healthy than the general population. They are
also more likely to be unemployed, less likely to own property and
more likely to be convicted and jailed for crimes.
A debate rages over whether those disparities are due to prejudice,
social disadvantages such as less well-funded schools in inner
cities where many black Americans live, or whether African
Americans should work harder to deal with their own issues.
Obama's frequent injunctions to parents to switch off the
television set, get children to do homework and take better care of
their children could tip the balance in the debate.
And if his administration expands health care it could
significantly redress one big disparity, said
Harris-Lacewell.
But one concern for people seeking to redress inequality is that
Obama's victory could diminish their leverage when it comes to
addressing those issues.
"People will say: 'We have elected a black president. We are done
with race,'" said William Jelani Cobb, author of books about
contemporary black culture.
Young people
Exit polls showed that large numbers of young voters turned out to
vote for Obama as president.
That support is partly a product of school integration, which began
in the 1960s, though recent studies show that the process of
integration is being reversed.
It is also the result of the increasing visibility of African
Americans in popular culture from music to movies. Jackson argued
that the presence of blacks in sports had helped transform racial
attitudes.
Music mogul Russell Simmons said hip hop and hip-hop culture and
fashion had also profoundly impacted youth culture, despite the
controversy associated with it.
"Hip hop and hip-hop culture had so much to do with this shift in
race relations. ... The doors were knocked down by hip hop. It had
more to do with a shift in race relations than all the civil rights
leaders," he said.
Another fact that played little role in voting choices could yet
prove important - for the next four years the country's first
family will be black.
Americans will watch Obama's daughters, who are 10 and 7, grow up
in the White House.
That could give young people of color a renewed sense of the
opportunities open to them.
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