Since last week’s historic election of Barack Obama’s as the next U.S. president, a number of high-profile Europeans have been sticking their feet in their mouths while commenting on the situation (Well, some were being outright racist). For example, a leading Austrian television journalist said - on camera - that he “wouldn’t want the Western world to be directed by a black man.” The Italian Prime Minister tried to joke about it, by describing Obama as “young, handsome and even suntanned.” The National Democratic Party of Germany ran the headline, “Africa Conquers the White House,” on their website. And these aren’t even the extremists. Read more…
Well, this is some perspective:
The notion that there might be “racists for Obama,” as one Democrat called them, comes against the backdrop of a country whose white voters largely accept the notion of a black president.
“The economy is trumping racism,” said Kurt Schmoke, the dean of Howard University Law School and a former Baltimore mayor. “A lot of people who we might think wouldn’t vote their pocketbook because of race — now they are.”
“If you go to a white neighborhood in the suburbs and ask them, ‘How would you feel about a large black man kicking your door in,’ they would say, ‘That doesn’t sound good to me,’” said Democratic political consultant Paul Begala. “But if you say, ‘Your house is on fire, and the firefighter happens to be black,’ it’s a different situation.”
“The house is on fire, and one guy seems like he’s calm and confident and in charge, and that’s the only option,” he said.
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