Reflecting On Race Barriers

In point of fact, the most prominent government officials from visible racial or ethnic minorities are appointed, not elected. (There are, let us be clear, relatively few at the top levels of the American government, either. Obama was the only black member of the U.S. Senate.) In Britain, a few with Afro-Caribbean or South Asian backgrounds are members of the House of Lords. In France, there are three women named by Sarkozy to his cabinet: Justice Minister Rachida Dati, whose family is from Algeria and Morocco; Fadela Amara, the secretary of state for urban policies, who comes from an Algerian Berber background; and Rama Yade, born in Senegal, who is a junior minister for foreign affairs and human rights. As a spokesman for France's Representative Council of Black Associations said recently, "Three swallows do not make it spring."

Yet there are some surprises. In Germany last week, Cem Ozdemir, the 42-year-old son of Turkish Muslim immigrants, became co-chair of the influential Green Party. He says he never puts his background front and center in his political campaigns. He is careful not to talk about the plight of immigrants so much as the broader difficulties of the working class. And he did not need Obamania to help him get to where he is. But among fellow Germans with similar backgrounds, there is something of the same enthusiasm. "If you want to have someone who can bring back the passion to politics, we need someone from outside the club," says journalist Mely Kiyak, author of a book about the hard road politicians like Ozdemir have had to travel.

Other activists in Europe do not really expect the spasm of enthusiasm that surrounded the American election to carry them very far. But that doesn't prevent them from hoping. "For the first time in several centuries of western history we have felt a sort of tremor, the possibility of a shift, into a post-racial society," says Sopo.

In some parts of the world, however, that sort of denouement is nowhere in sight. Politicians like Morales in Bolivia, or Mayawati in India, have built their power by playing on ethnic resentments and caste divisions. They may be described as "Obamas" in press reports, and even by their followers, but their approach to taking power could hardly be farther from the president-elect's studied efforts to bring people together, build cooperation and hammer out compromises.

Meanwhile, in his little village near Nazareth, Sheikh Abdullah continues to receive congratulations from other tribal leaders and from the public as he waits for a call from the White House transition team that may never come. They should believe him, he says. "People around here trust us," he says. "My family has a good reputation and we've been known to reconcile feuds many times." Maybe, along with the smile, that's another link Obama has to the tribe of Abdullah.

With Tracy Mcnicoll, Ginny Power and Clare Premo in Paris, Joanna Chen in Jerusalem, William Underhill in London and Barbie Nadeau in Rome

© 2008