The bells of all Europe’s cathedrals seemed to ring in unison as the polls closed on Election Night in America earlier this month. In his rhetoric on the domestic campaign trail, President-elect Obama asked Americans to respect the judgment of Europeans that Bush’s foreign policy had been an abject disaster, not a leap of faith in that most American voters opinions coincided with those across the pond.
So, too, on his controversial summer world tour, Obama acknowledged to a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin that the prevailing attitude in Europe was that America was “part of what has gone wrong in our world, rather than a force to help make it right”, validating their animosity toward American values without stipulation.
Therefore, it was no surprise that, as results of the American election began appearing on televisions across the European continent, celebration was spontaneous and jubilant.
In Leicester, England, in the days following Obama’s victory over Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Kwame Boyce-Deacon, a fourteen year-old black Briton went to his barber to have the image of Obama shaved into the hair on the back of his head. His reason and purpose were clear. “Obama is the first black President of America and I'm the first black model of Obama in Leicester – which is special for me,” Boyce-Deacon said.
The euphoric reaction to the idea of America’s first black president was not confined to capricious Brit teens.
Lady Patricia Scotland, Britain’s Dominican-born attorney general, said, “This wonderful election demonstrates that the dream of Martin Luther King that there would come a time when people would be judged not by the colour of their skin but the quality of their character has arrived.”
In sync with the waves of political and social ecstasy, Rama Yade, France’s Senagal-born junior minister for human rights, said, “This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten. America is re-becoming a New World. … On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes.”
The election represented more than just a repudiation of the Bush Doctrine and validation of European desires to have America resume a partnership role in world affairs, rather than one of leadership. For many Europeans it was a symbol that barriers to minorities were falling further, and for the president-elect, his status as an icon in Europe must have encouraged him to feel that his goals of working with Europe to achieve his foreign policy objectives were attainable. The unfortunate irony is that the rallying of Europe’s citizens around a symbol of ethnic minority achievement will be the precise undoing of Obama’s European agenda.
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Article comments
1 - Baritone
I think your entire construct is flawed and presumptive. As I believe you noted, the influx of minority populations in most European nations is relatively recent - most within the past 50 years or less. You also note that many of those minorities have chosen NOT to assimilate into their host countries socially, culturally or religiously. It may well be a goodly long time before any ethnic minority achieves the top level political job or any substantive political power in any European country.
However, as the history is briefer and the conditions far different there than here in the US, the pressures and expectations are also far different. It is far from an analagous situation.
Ergo, I don't see that Obama will encounter any substantive resistance from European leaders owing to any ethnic/racial pressures from within.
It just seems to me that a great number of people are digging down further and further into the abyss to find some platform upon which to predict Obama's failure. It is my opinion that Obama's race will be a non-factor both here and abroad. His presidency may prove to be a phenomenon that few of us will have imagined.
B
2 - Dave Nalle
B-tone. I notice that in some ways the article is working at cross-purposes with itself. Did you notice that most of the European politicians quoted in the article are highly placed blacks? That would seem to suggest that some of the top European nations have been making good progress when it comes to moving blacks up politically, which seems to argue strongly against this premise that Europeans are not welcoming blacks into positions of power.
Dave
3 - STM
It's a load of old bollocks, but nice try anyway Bryan. At least you had a go, even if it's wrong - and offensive.
Where on earth did you come up with the notion that Europeans would be trying to keep Obama "out of the room" ... a phrase that's as loaded as hell?
I'd think the opposite would be true. He'd be getting the best seat at the table.
Perhaps you should keep your focus on America's social ills and its considerable, ongoing racial tensions.
It won't matter diddly squat about what colour Obama's skin is, or what kind of tensions there are in Europe about the influx of immigrants. It'll be about whether he wants to engage other nations as equal partners in any consultative process and whether the ideas he comes up with are good or bad.
Last time I was in Britain, there were black folks everywhere, on the bus, the train, shops, banks, all with English/Welsh/Scottish/Irish/West Indian/African accents, running businesses, holding down jobs, doing well at school, teaching, going to Oxford and Cambridge, joining the armed forces, involved in mainstream politics ...
I'd suspect most of them are British citizens, too, which entitles them to the same rights and priveleges as any other British citizen.
There's a black Englishman sitting four desks away from me at the moment. The only time I think of him as being black rather than an Englishman (which is his real failing) is when I read stuff like this.
It shows a huge lack of understanding about European politics and social issues to even think this will be an issue.
The British and French, both empire states (although not just them), have had immigrants around for centuries, and people from the colonies coming and going in their thousands for all that time. They're not shocked by the colour of someone's skin. It's normal there to see people of all races, colours and creeds interacting socially.
Back to the drawing board Bryan, and something less muddle-headed next time.
I suspect you've just made this up as you've gone along.
4 - Baritone
Stan,
Of course you are right, especially as regards Britain and France. I suspect Bryan is responding more to situations in say, Germany or perhaps as he mentions, Spain. I know there are tensions in Germany mainly regarding immigrants from Turkey (which is kind of Germany's Mexico) and of course there have been rustlings from most European countries including Britain and France regarding their growing Muslim populations.
As I see it, though, it is the Muslims who have made the choice not to assimilate into the various cultures into which they have migrated. Otherwise, the natives would likely take little note of them.
Regardless, I don't see how Obama is likely to have any particular problem gaining the confidence of European leaders or their citizens -regardless of his or their color (or colour, if you prefer.)
B
5 - STM
Thanks for sticking that "U" in there B/tone old boy!! Nice to hear from you, especially speaking the Queen's English :)
The problem with Bryan's premise here (and there are other really offensive statements in that puff piece too) is that because certain sections of the new multiracial Europe don't want to assimilate, everyone who's not Dulux white will be tarred with the same brush by those naughty, angry, ingrate surrender-monkey Europeans (pardon the brush pun).
Nothing could be further from the truth. Europeans are like anyone - largely, beyond a few nut groups, they don't care who comes from where and does what, provided they embrace their new lives (which of course, most immigrants do) and try to fit in (which of course doesn't mean sacrificing your old culture, either, as all these things bring their own riches).
But Europeans are smart enough too to recognise that the ones who don't want to assimilate and are causing trouble are actually criminals, rather than simply either black/muslim/Paki/Asian/Polakdotted/Zogite/Calathumpian/jihadist, or a combination of any of the above.
Bryan's stirring the pot. But his soup's got no fucking meat in it.
On the Turks and Germans, mate - that's been going on for some decades. As long as I can remember.
Largely, the Turks (and in the great scheme of things, the numbers aren't huge) have tried to fit in, but Germans - especially the older ones - given their whole history aren't REALLY noted for their welcoming stance and a desire to assimilate with anyone who's even a smidgeon different.
Although they had, ahem, colonial designs on a couple of separate occasions last century, they remained quite isolated as a people and still are compared to much of Europe.
All of which, of course, can and DOES lead to people feeling disenfranchised, perhaps even fearful.
Spain's biggest problem is the huge influx of our Pom brethren. It must be galling for the Spaniards. The British spent centuries fighting them and everything they stood for under absolutism and the de facto rule of Rome. No Nelson needed now - they can just jump on an Easyjet flight from Birmingham and walk in and take over the place. Is this the real legacy of Trafalgar - curry paella with chips and a holiday joint on the Costa del Sol?
However, I can't work out how Obama's been stitched into this and forms the main thrust of the writer's post.
6 - Baritone
I believe that tensions regarding Turks are even greater in Austria. Austria, even more than Germany, moves to the sound of its own drummer.
While supposedly Americans are not in favour in much of Europe, during our trips to Vienna and various locations in Germany over the past few years we encountered virtually no open hostility (with the exception of an apparent skinhead on a train to Berlin who regarded us under his breath as "fucking Americans." Most of the people we encountered were friendly and courteous - in part I suppose that many of them knew my son who has made numerous friends with the natives over the years.
If Obama does in fact meet any particular resistance from world leaders, I doubt that it will stem from any perceivable racial or ethnic problems. Hell, even Iran has made some positive overtures to Obama in recent weeks. North Korea remains pretty much mute, but it's not altogether a certainty that North Korea has any idea what's going on in the world outside their borders. They might as well be on another planet.
I don't believe that N. Korea's problems stem from differences in colour, but rather that they harbour political flavours quite different from those we savour. But one can certainly hope that bloke, Kim Jong Il will die or otherwise disappear leaving the country in the control of someone less barmy. Otherwise, they can all just kiss my bloody arse.
B
7 - STM
Bryan (do people really spell Brian with a Y?) writes: "America’s rescuing their (European) lard from so many wars rooted in squabbling over what crowned head of Europe would dominate the people of [insert name of darker-skinned and resource-rich region here]."
LOL. Here we f.cking go again. The myth of American exceptionalism ... Freedom-loving anti-imperialist America (check with the Filipinos and half a dozen other dark-skinned rsource-rich nations on that) rescues eveyone's arse since before time began, perhaps earlier.
Name all these wars Bryan.
I can think of one - that's it, ONE - but only at a pinch: WWII - as the First World War was nearly over when the US joined in and historians even in the United States discount that it played any kind of decisive role beyond being a small part of the final allied offensive in 1918.
I'll give you a nod towards WWII, except: the only problem with WWII was the US wasn't the only one "rescuing lard".
On this, it's also an eye-opener to look up Stalingrad + eastern front sometime too to see how the US rescued Russian lard.
I realise in regard to Americans we're not dealing with an entire nation of complete f.cking idiots, but it honestly feels like it sometimes, especially when someone claiming to have a university degree writes this kind of nonsense.
Perhaps Bryan could try reading a few books instead of depending on Hollywood for his skewed version of history. A degree in politics is just about useless unless you know and understand history.
Patently, you don't; believing your own bullsh.t just isn't a history lesson. Besides, it helps to be right when you publish a story with your name on it.
8 - Brunelleschi
That was a terrible article. If anyone got the point, please post it. I fell asleep on page 2.
I'm glad Obama is popular overseas, and it's real.
9 - STM
B-tone: I just read your post of December 10 ... sorry I didn't see it before and didn't reply. I was too busy fuming at Bryan's nonsense (I notice he didn't have the bollocks to reply to anything).
You are right about Austria ... their politics have taken a decided swing to the right of late - too far to the right - the one place along with Germany where you'd think given history's recent sorry lessons that they'd be really aware of that. But no. Germans, however, ARE aware.
On the welcome mat: Europeans, especially the British who still consider Americans as kind of long-distant rebellious colonial cousins made good, aren't down on Americans generally, and the French aren't except in that way where all our cultures are inferior ... but you'll always get the odd loony who wants to make trouble (same as I've struck Americans when I've been in the US who gave me grief for being Australian ... and therefore obviously terribly uncouth. On that score, they were probably right though :). I remember one guy back in the '80s in SF sniffing about Aussie wines and letting everyone in hearing distance know.
Anyway, you guys are probably as welcome down here as anywhere. Since IMO all Americans are as mad as cut snakes, and have a wire loose between their brains and their mouths, they fit in perfectly.
And Brun ... I couldn't work out what he was getting at either.