Karen Scott’s latest blog was on the election of US President nominee, Barack Obama, to the post. And it prompted a comment from Dorothy Mantooth:

Yes, funny how Americans turned out to not be the stupid racists so many people insist we are, isn’t it?

And my answer to that is much longer than can be accepted as a blog comment, so I thought I’d post my reply here.

I wasn’t keen on the election of Barack Obama for several reasons, and Mantooth’s comment is one of them. First off, let me say that there is bigotry in every country in the world. Every. Damned. Country. If I search within myself, I will admit that I hold prejudices and negative opinions about segments of various world “others” myself, no matter how rational and even-handed I try to be. I console myself with the fact that I, or my family, have been hard done by at the hands of these “other” groups, but that still doesn’t excuse me extending my default distrust to every member of that particular group when we first meet. That’s one of my personal demons and I try — or not, as the case may be — to deal with it. (Don’t think I’m talking solely about race here. One the groups that I have an instant distrust of is community child-care counsellors, for example.)

Following on from that point, just because Obama was voted President doesn’t mean that the USA has suddenly become a haven of love and sparkles for minority groups. However, I’m afraid that a large segment of the population will use this as an excuse well into the future. “Whaddya mean, we still hate blacks? We elected one for President, didn’t we?”

The problem is, with all this focus on race, the realisation that people voted for Obama due to other reasons is lost in the flurry. And I’m sure that several million people held their noses when they pulled that lever, rationalising that someone who was clearly intelligent, erudite and seemingly empathetic — even if he was also black — was at least better than what came before. (An indictment of true democracy, but that’s for another day.)

In fact, I think the NAACP has a bigger job ahead of it now, because discriminatory practices in the US will continue, but it will be entwined with the kind of superior rhetoric that will diminish understanding rather than increase it. In other words, I’m waiting for this kind of comment and all its attendant consequences: “Why do we even need affirmative action programs any more? I mean, a black’s in the White House, for Chrissakes!”.

At this point in time, I feel that the election of Barack Obama will prove to be a difficult step for one of race relations in the USA. It may even end up being a step backwards, although I hope I’m wrong. Any missteps he makes are going to be “black” missteps. Any unpopular decisions, “black” decisions. And, considering that there are very few other prominent African-Americans in the political life (how many AA governors? how many AA DAs? Senators? Congress reps?), his errors are not going to be because he’s stupid, or greedy, or short-sighted, or high as a kite, or has idiotic advisors, (all good and valid excuses for past Heads of State) but because he’s black.

This attitude (and I can’t wait to see some of this drivel play out on Fox News as a result of Obama’s election) could very well polarise sections of society, all utterings of “everybody’s equal in America” to the contrary. Those of paler hue may feel even more threatened and become intransigently bellicose, prodded by the hateful promptings of people you know about as well as I do. (Do you honestly think they will stop their rantings? Or will it be more a case of throwing petrol on a fire?) On the other hand, you will have a black population feeling incredibly energised and enthusiastic and more willing to grasp opportunities that have (or haven’t) been presented to them before. And, at that point, my mind turns to the Hispanic population, wondering what they will have to cope with in the near future as well.

So, in closing, while Mantooth may have felt quite smug when penning that comment, it actually does the cause of minority rights more disservice than service. A premature resting on laurels at best; a pervasive ignorance of human nature at worst. But I’m happy that she made it because it crystallised some of my own thinking.

The attitude of Americans to the issue of race wasn’t decided on Election Day. But it will be decided in the months to come.

POSTSCRIPT: Sorry to hear Prop 8 passed.