One year ago today or thereaboutsish...
Framing it simply in terms of black and white, did you think a black man would actually be elected as president of the U S of A in 2008?
Poll-a-comin'...
I felt he had an exceptional chance in the future to at least be a presedential candidate from the moment of his 2004 Democratic Convention speech. But knowing Hillary was running, no, I didn't believe it was his time. But each stage that he progressed it became clear something phenomenal was happening.
No longer living in Chicago it took a while to ferret out details about him, but the more I found, the more clear it became he had the skill/drive to win; he demonstrated the very Kennedy-esque ability to outfox the trifecta of Chicago hardball politics, Hillary/Bill Clinton's campaign and McCain's failed attempts at pulling a Karl Rove. He also resisted going for the jugular, something he was heavily criticised for from within the party and that had many voting Dems nervous. It turned out to be a brilliant move on his part as every time McCain or Palin came at him he kept his composure and he ultimately attained critical conservative votes by demonstrating a presidential commodity: grace under fire. That versus McCain's tendency towards flying off the handle cinched it for lots of people.
I also knew he'd taught at the University of Chicago but hadn't been aware he was still living in Hyde Park. Very interesting place, factoring into the type of campaign he waged. The odd duck in a historically segregated city, Hyde Park has been mult-cultural, multi-racial, and sits on the lakefront of the south side, a university community, not to mention former neighbourhood of Harold Washington, the city's first black mayor. It has a large, economically diverse black population with which there have been uneasy alliances, sitting on the very edges of poverty going through regentrification/redevelopment. Go a little farther south you hit a Hispanic pocket; go even farther and you've hit oil refineries and nothern Indiana; this atmosphere would have been the perfect training ground for Obama, encountering the intersections of educational, political elite, poor, blue collar, middle, upper middle classes, and also the positive as well as negative interaction between whites blacks and hispanics. Politics are a way of breathing in Chicago. He'll take to Washington like a duck to water. Hopefully, in a positive way.
I was going to ask you though where that inverse racism came from mainly, US or the UK. I know that in the US color or tone matters within the black community. When a baby is born it's not at all uncommon for skin tone to be the subject of conversation. A baby can't be too light or too dark. There's definitely a preference somewhere inbetween. I don't know if that is just a US thing.
