If nothing else, maybe I’ve highlighted that race issues are very complex. There is no quick fix and no need to cry tears over this election. That is just making the problem worse.

Yes, maybe it will be proven wrong. They will probably call the president a racist first (regardless that he is black). That has happened here in South Africa many times amongst the blacks when anyone gives criticism. And those that care about the president’s opinion are the media and intellectuals. By now the general population, blacks and whites, have a vague grasp of how dishonest they are. This is just unfolding into ANOTHER impotent situation.

This is just an incredibly impotent situation and now even more so because Obama has not raised the racism issue. It would have opened up a can of worms but Obama could have handled it because he is a very good speaker. That way he could have regained the ground that was lost by blacks during the election. I still don’t think you can justify your statement “it’s good news for minorities everywhere”. Obama might still raise the issue, but you have jumped to your conclusions prematurely and that is exactly the problem that I have with the media. I think you just see what you want to see at the expense of the truth. Do you know how much damage this is causing to resolving racial issues? It is very ironic.

Doen jouself ‘n guns; gaan kyk na ‘n Obama speech op Youtube. En onthou ek sê nie Obama is sonder foute nie – ek sê net ongetwyfeld hy is die beste persoon vir die joppie.

Uit vandag se Economist “Mr Obama is bringing the same talent for organisation to the transition that he brought to his campaign. He has been quietly planning since the summer with John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton and the head of a Clintonian think-tank, the Centre for American Progress, studying previous transitions and mulling over appointments. And he announced an expanded transition team the day after winning the election, adding Valerie Jarrett, a veteran Chicago insider, and Pete Rouse, his chief of staff in the Senate. So far the troika’s approach has been thoroughly businesslike, with remarkably few leaks (particularly for Democrats) and a firm focus on getting things done quickly but not hastily. Mr Podesta has suggested that, given the gravity of the country’s problems, Mr Obama will try to announce several cabinet appointments, particularly the treasury secretary and the national security team, before December.

They are determined to avoid repeating the mistakes that Mr Clinton made and that many of them lived through. He was slow off the mark, failing to make a single senior appointment for six weeks after he was elected and indulging instead in endless waffle.”

Ek dink Obama gaan jou verkeerd bewys, maar geluk gaan jy baarby baatvind. ‘n Verloor wen situasie.

Yes I get it and I will celebrate that victory for the Spanish and White American’s with you for as long, and hard, as you like! I think we have come to an agreement.

Vir Attie:
Soveel soos wat jy wil he die ras kwessie nie ‘n issue moet wees nie, is dit juis hoekom die media so groot bohaai oor Obama op skop. Ek het nie ‘n probleem daarmee as die media die sosiale klimaat van die wereld goed wil probeer beinvloed nie, want soos ek gese het ek self word erg deur ras issues geraak in SA. Maar dan moet die media nie ‘n bydrae aan die probleem maak nie en die verkeerde kandidaat vir hul veldtog kry nie. As daar nie iemand gepas is nie, dan los dit eerder.

“it’s better for a people to perish than live on in injustice”

Obama is nie ‘n ou van aksie nie. As ek dit kan raak sien kan die mense, vir wie hy veronderderstel is om soveel verandering te bring, dit ook sien. Mense hou nie van verandering nie en dus het jy werklik ‘n sterk persoon nodig om so iets te laat gebeur.

Hier is gedeeltes:
“Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation.”

So Abbie, the point your missing is this.

Afrikaners always voted for the Nats, English SA for the Progs. The Cubans in the US always vote for the Republicans. The jews for the pro jewish candidate. The blacks for the pro black candidate. In SA today the whites vote for the white Democratic aliance, the coloureds for the ID, blacks for the ANC. In the UK people are debating the issue and are saying that its unlikely that a balck candidate would become a president like in the US before Obama.

With this election blacks voted for Obama. That is not news. It’s things as usual. Nothing special, and really nothing for you to get upset about.

What different is that more than 40% of the US’s white population and a significant hispanic contingent voted for a black man. That’s what different.

Get it?