US Elections: Results, Analysis and Implications

Written by,

Professor (Emeritus) Kamuti Kiteme, Ed.D

Karibu Rais Obama!

The 44th President, elected 221 years after the United States Constitution was first adopted in 1787, is an embodiment of the change he preaches. For the previous 43 Presidents, from George Washington (1st) to George W. Bush (43rd), have all been white.

It is hard to believe that the United States of America has actually elected its first African-American President – Barack Hussein Obama – the 47-year-old son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother. Tragically, neither parent lived to witness this history-making event.

Even before inauguration, Jan. 20, 2009, the President-elect faces a myriad of hurdles and challenges, both at home and abroad.

First: President Obama will have to grab the bull by its horns and formulate innovative and comprehensive methods (even if unpopular) to extricate America and the world from the ruins of the current economic recession. In the 1930’s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt confronted the Depression squarely, saving America from a national economic catastrophe. President Obama’s task in the present day will be no less onerous.

Second: the new Black President will preside over a White House and national white male-dominated establishment.

To illustrate: African-Americans constitute about 13% of the US population. If elections were free, fair and color-blind, proportional representation of blacks at all levels of government would be 13%.

However, the US Senate membership reflects blatant racial inequality with zero black members (Obama was the only black) out of 100 (0%). The House of Representatives distinguishes itself by having 42 black members out of 435 (9.7%). The 50 States fall behind with only two black Governors – Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and David Paterson of New York (4%).

By contrast, the figures show representation by women as follows: the Senate, 17 members (17%), the House, 74 members (17%); Governors, 8 (16%). Clearly the US is a far cry from more progressive countries like Rwanda and Sweden, which have 53% and 49% women Members of Parliament respectively. Shamefully, Kenya has only 18 women MPs out of 222 (8%).

Just as Kenya practices balance in tribal political appointments, President Obama will have to balance the various US white majority tribes and racial minorities – African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Native Americans. He will undertake to make his government “look like America”.

Third: the African-American core base of support, crucial for Obama’s victory, already has high expectations for the Brother. Undeniably, Black America’s 13% minority constitutes disproportionally large numbers in the most socially destructive segments of American life, e.g., substandard housing, homelessness, inferior education, unemployment, poor health care, drug addiction, racism, police brutality and incarceration.

To ameliorate these conditions, the Brother-President will have to devise creative programs like President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” in the 1960’s.

Fourth: Africa, largely ignored by previous US administrations, looks forward to new and more sensitive American policies regarding trade, aid, loans, technical assistance and cultural exchange.

Fifth and last: in the past eight years we have seen America degenerate to abysmal levels of respect, dignity and reputation around the world, to the delight of its enemies.

After the tragic “9/11” terrorist attacks, with the subsequent disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (another headache for President Obama) American leaders regressed into bellicose preemptive unilateralism in world affairs – often senselessly disparaging the UN – coupled with xenophobic isolationism and protectionism.

In a reflection of the worldwide disenchantment with America, the website www.iftheworldcouldvote.com shows Obama with 87.3% of the world’s vote compared to McCain’s 12.7%.

The world wishes President Obama all the best as he prepares to tackle these enormously difficult challenges, and believes that he will surely succeed.

US Elections: Politics, Color and Racism, Part I

Written by,
Professor (Emeritus) Kamuti Kiteme, Ed.D

On November 4, 2008, American voters will elect the most powerful man of the  only superpower in the world – the President of the United States of America. That man will be either Barack Obama or John McCain.

Unlike any other country on earth, the United States is inhabited by immigrants (and a tiny minority of indigenous Native Americans, erroneously referred to as Red Indians) from all corners of the globe. Never before in human history have there been so many races and ethnic groups professing loyalty under one national sovereignty. Thus, most Americans have hyphenated ethnic identities, symbolizing their lands of origin, e.g., Irish-American, Italian-American, African-American, Chinese-American, Japanese-American, etc.

English immigrants and the English language have dominated the American politico-economic systems from British Colonial times. These immigrants were the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants – WASPS in American parlance. They have also controlled the American Presidency since independence from the British in 1776.

Up till now, the 43 US Presidents (except Irish-American and Roman Catholic John F. Kennedy, elected the 35th President in 1960, and assassinated Nov. 22, 1963) have all been WASPS.

If elected, African-American Barack Obama will be the 44th President, and the 2nd to interrupt the WASP monopoly of the US Presidency.

No wonder, therefore, that race is such a sensitive and serious factor in the probable history-making election of an African-American.

Current public opinion polls indicate that the Democratic Party candidate Obama is leading his Republican Party opponent McCain. Excellent news! But our son’s victory cannot be taken for granted. The white voters could easily tell pollsters that they will vote for Obama, but do the exact opposite in the voting booth on Nov. 4. In America they call this phenomenon the “Bradley Effect” – named after African-American Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who, in 1982, ran for Governor of California and “won” in the polls, but lost the race to his white opponent, George Deukmejian.

It is frightening when, in political rallies and private interviews broadcast on the media, diehard racists curse and spit venom at the very mention of the name Obama, vowing that blacks will never rule America.

The paradox is that in public places such as schools, waiting rooms for buses/trains and toilets, racist and discriminatory signs against blacks were taken down more than 40 years ago. But in the hearts and minds of white racists these ugly signs are still on display.

Then there is the false allegation that Senator Obama is a Muslim (he’s actually Christian). His middle name is Hussein – the same as America’s enemy No. 1 – the late Saddam. Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin continually accuses Obama of “palling around with terrorists”. Photos of Obama, depicting him as a Muslim Elder/Chief in North-Eastern Kenya, have been widely circulated in the media and internet. The purpose is to portray Obama as disloyal and unpatriotic to the American nation.

One wonders why the anti-Obama cabal is ignoring the basic American freedoms of religious affiliation, social association, and public assembly. As former Secretary of State Colin Powell (who has endorsed Obama) posed on US national television, with all these freedoms, what would be wrong even if Obama were a Muslim?

I believe that the American young people have the obligation to realize Obama’s vision of “change we need” and teach the retrogressive older generation. The Financial Times, Oct. 24, 2008, noted that there are 44 million young Americans – about 21% of the electorate – who could very well tip the balance and make history by electing Barack Hussein Obama the 44th President of the United States.

Professor Kamuti Kiteme, Ed.D., 73, is former Professor and Deputy Chair of the Black (Africana) Studies Department, City College, City Univ. of NY (1967-1995). After retirement, Prof. Kiteme served as a member of the Kenya Standing Committee on Human Rights (1996-2001); and Vice-Chair of the Kenya National Library Service (2001-2007). He has been patron/advisor for village projects such as schools and health centers, and coordinator of international academic exchange programs.

US Elections: Politics, Color and Racism, Part II

Written by,
Professor (Emeritus) Kamuti Kiteme, Ed.D

Color classifications among Americans of different races and ethnicities are often perplexing to people outside the US – including Kenyans.

Why, for example, is Senator Barack Obama referred to as black, while he is so light – you know, lighter than some Indians and Arabs?

The US Census Bureau recognizes five (5) categories for racially classifying Americans, namely: White, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.
In Kenya, one can strangely be simultaneously white or brown or even black. I’m always amazed when I hear of lost black people or children being described as “mweupe” (white) or “mweusi” (black) or hudhurungi (brown).

In America, however, racist practice dictates that you’re either 100% white, or black even if you are 99.99% white. This leaves Senator Obama no room to maneuver between shades of blackness. Sisters and Brothers who are so white that they could “pass for white” remain classified as black. Senator (soon to be President) Obama is therefore black.

But African Americans did not become black without struggle. They fought hard to reject the use of slave names like Negro, colored, mulatto, darky, and nigger (the worst epithet) during the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s. The Movement encompassed: comprehensive demands for human and civil rights, political and economic empowerment, and human recognition and respect for people of African descent. Nobel laureate Dr. Martin Luther King was among the leaders of the crusade before he was assassinated in 1968.

The Movement called for demonstrations, strikes, marches, and sit-ins in all-white restaurants, schools and residential areas. An end to segregated bus seating was spearheaded by Rosa Parks – the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.

Predictably, white segregationist authorities tried to suppress these activities violently, but to no avail.

The calls for “Black Power” and “Black is Beautiful” preached the potential power of the African descendants and respect for the humanity embodied in the black race. The leaders advocated natural hairdos and African dress. Youths like Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) championed this doctrine as a means of rediscovering their lost “Africanness”.

The rejection of the term Negro and the use of Black instead were initiated by the Nation of Islam led by the Hon. Elijah Mohammad and his brilliant disciple Malcolm X. Their publication Mohammad Speaks (today The Final Call) preached self-discipline, economic independence, and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and sexual promiscuity. The Muslims reformed many former criminals, including Malcolm X himself, and established successful independent businesses. Tragically, like Dr. King, Malcolm X was also assassinated during the upheavals of the Civil Rights Revolution.

In academia, black students staged violent demonstrations demanding a relevant Afrocentric education for African descendants – which Eurocentric scholars had ignored for centuries. Consequently, Black (later Africana) Studies Departments proliferated in most American Universities and Colleges.

Black scholars started Afrocentric Periodicals and Journals, e.g., Journal of Black Studies and Journal of Black Psychology. Similarly, academicians wrote pioneering books on Black Studies. Moreover, they organized Professional Societies, e.g., the African Heritage Studies Association and the Study of Classical African Civilizations.

Black Churches, newspapers and magazines beat the same drum of “Black Power” and the “Black is Beautiful” message.

White electronic media started airing black programs on television and radio and eventually stopped the use of Negro and Colored altogether in favour of Black and, later, African-American.

That Senator Barack Obama is on his way to the most powerful office in the world, speaks powerfully to what African-Americans can now achieve in the United States of America – despite a history of slavery, racism, segregation and economic deprivation.

Professor Kamuti Kiteme, Ed.D., 73, is former Professor and Deputy Chair of the Black (Africana) Studies Department, City College, City Univ. of NY (1967-1995). After retirement, Prof. Kiteme served as a member of the Kenya Standing Committee on Human Rights (1996-2001); and Vice-Chair of the Kenya National Library Service (2001-2007). He has been patron/advisor for village projects such as schools and health centers, and coordinator of international academic exchange programs.