Obama's victory stirs Europeans to confront race issue

[babylonsister]

Obama's victory stirs Europeans to confront race issue
By Julie Sell | McClatchy Newspapers


LONDON — For months before Barack Obama's election last week, his popularity ratings in Europe soared to levels never matched in America. Now that Obama is headed to the Oval Office as the first African-American president, his victory is prompting Europeans to confront some uncomfortable questions about race within their own countries.

In Britain, the head of the government's Equality and Human Rights Commission sparked a public debate for saying that a minority politician as "brilliant" as Obama would struggle to "break through the institutional stranglehold on power within the Labor Party."

"The problem is not the electorate, the problem is the machine," Trevor Phillips, who is black, told The Times of London. "It's institutional racism" that extends beyond a single political party, he said.

In France, meanwhile, the wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy has thrown her support behind a new campaign that seeks to wipe out racism and end the white stranglehold on France's elite political and social institutions. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a musician and former model, is backing a manifesto published over the weekend that is subtitled "Oui, nous pouvons!" (French for "Yes, we can!").

Obama's victory "highlights via a cruel contrast the shortcomings of the French Republic, and the distance that separates us from a country whose citizens knew how to go beyond the racial question and elect a man who happens to be black as president," the statement said.

The manifesto urged the adoption of U.S.-style affirmative-action programs to promote minorities in education and workplaces -- a radical departure for France, which does not even record race in its national census. The French manifesto was launched by Yazid Sabeg, a millionaire who is the son of Algerian immigrants, and is backed by many members of the French elite,

Community groups in Britain and France, which are home to some of Europe's most racially mixed cities, have long urged an increase in what is now a minuscule minority presence in politics. They have seized on Obama's victory as a means to energize minority communities.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/55720.html

[tazkcmo]

1. My!

The French translation of "Yes we can!" gets me hot.

[hendo]

3. and this

from the same country that almost elected a facist a few years back.

[hendo]

2. yup

Obama's victory is making countries all over the world confront thier own internal racism.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Why Trevor Phillips is wrong

Why should Trevor Phillips have cause for distress over Barack Obama's election? After all, they have much in common: they're both groundbreaking politicians with a taste for contrarian attitudes who made news last week.

We all know about President-elect Obama (just typing it is still a novelty), but in the excitement you may have missed what the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said on Saturday.

Yes, he argued that senator – whoops, President-elect – Obama would never have been elected prime minister in this country because of "institutional resistance" among the political parties, thinktanks, unions and the rest, notably the Labour party. They're all in favour, they just want someone else to do it.
>
But the "no Obama here" sentiment, which has been around a bit in the past week, is seriously stupid. So much so that I've decided to blame the Times headline writer ("Labour 'racism' would block British Obama") rather than the EHRC chairman for it. I doubt if TP wanted that aspect of his interview up in lights since most of it was perfectly sensible. Phillips understands the dangers of excessive expectations.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2008/nov/10/barackobama-race

As per usual Phillips is acting the complete wanker that he is. If Diane Abbott or Oona King had said something on the subject they would have had more credility.

edit to add. you can contact Oona King via here : http://www.oonaking.com/ and Diane Abbott via here : http://www.dianeabbott.org.uk/index.php?page=Contact