Early on in the presidential campaign my loyalties were divided between Governor Bill Richardson and Sen. Barack Obama. Obama was the Young Turk with the gift of eloquence and the message of hope, and Richardson was the seasoned politician with the Mother of all Resumes.

Richardson is supremely qualified to be president, he has a resume that few can match: Governor of New Mexico, Congressman, Chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association in 2005 and 2006, United States Secretary of Energy and United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

But to be honest it wasn’t Richardson’s impressive credentials that captured my interest — it was his ethnicity. Unfortunately, when many Americans see a Latino, they imagine he’s a landscaper, carpenter, field worker or dishwasher. Richardson is an extremely successful Hispanic who has shattered all the stereotypes. I yearned for Richardson to be the next president of the United States because of what it would mean for Hispanics in particular and for race relations in general.

This Latino columnist would have been delighted if Richardson had secured the Democratic nomination. Richardson’s campaign never caught fire, he had the credentials, but he didn’t have the charisma. Americans want a president they can imagine themselves having a beer with. The Average Joe doesn’t care if his accountant is a socially awkward nerd, as long as he is a whiz at solving financial problems. But we want a president who is eloquent, charismatic and likeable.

Richardson didn’t even make an impression in the Hispanic community, probably because of his Anglo surname. I had a hard time convincing some of my friends and family members that Richardson is a Latino. Oh well, I hope Obama considers Richardson as a running mate.

In the Virginia primary I voted for Sen. Barack Obama; and I am doing everything I can to advance his candidacy. One day when I’m in a rest home, I want to be able to tell youngsters who come and visit me that in my own little way, I helped elect the first African American president.

I can understand why Obama has captured the imagination of the American people, — the senator from Illinois represents change and hope. Obama is one of those rare politicians who transcends party affiliations and even race.

But I can especially understand why African Americans are solidly behind Obama. Jim Crow laws, that prohibited blacks from using “whites only” restrooms and other public accommodations were still in place as late as 1965. For an African American who as a youngster was forced to drink from a “colored” drinking fountain, a black president represents a quantum leap forward.

If most blacks had the attitude “I’m for Obama because he’s black, regardless of his stand on the issues”, who are we to say that’s not right? “I’m for Obama because he’s black”, might not be the politically correct posture, but when you have suffered discrimination sometimes you think with your gut.

But it’s important to note that at the start of this long and bitter presidential campaign, Hillary and Obama were splitting the black vote. It wasn’t until Hillary staring losing some contests, that she got desperate and played the race card. Bill Clinton’s infamous race-baiting comments after the South Carolina primary caused, blacks to desert Hillary in droves, and Obama now garners about 90% of the black vote.

It would be a tragedy if the Jeremiah Wright controversy derails Obama’s presidential aspirations. The Whitey-hating Wright is the antithesis of everything that Obama holds dear: Inclusiveness and racial harmony. I hope blue-collar whites will forgive Obama for his mistake in not repudiating Wright months ago, and vote for Obama, the one candidate who can unite Americans of all races.

I still expect Obama to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. When Obama is inaugurated as the next president of the United States, it will be a momentous occasion and a time of rejoicing for African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, Whites and Americans of all other enthnicities.

A controversial examination of how our political system, despite “get out the vote” rhetoric, works to suppress the vote–especially the votes of African Americans.

“Karl Rove began to impress upon leading Republicans…that…one way to address the party’s electoral problem…was to suppress black and Hispanic turnout–a task that would become far easier if the airwaves were buzzing with news of voter-fraud indictments.”–Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post

Mohammed Allie — in Cape Town looks at whether racism is still thriving in South Africa, 14 years after the end of apartheid, as President Thabo Mbeki suggested in a speech to mark Freedom Day.

Earlier this month, the owner of a South African tourist resort refused to allow a film crew to shoot on his property because of a “whites only” policy.

This came shortly after a racist video made by students at the Free State University and the alleged killing of four black people in an informal settlement by an 18 year old white man.

All of this seems to show that racism is still alive and well in South Africa.

Albertus Pretorious, who owns the Broedestroom Vakansie-Oord resort in North West Province, stood by his whites-only admission policy.

His action comes despite being fined R10 000 ($1,500) and ordered to change his policy three years ago by the Human Rights Commission.

He was fined then for evicting a white family who had brought two black children along with them to the resort.

The producers of Mr Bones 2, a sequel to South Africa’s highest grossing movie, have since decided to move the location of their film shoot away from the venue, because of the owner’s unrepentant attitude.

Mr Pretorious was defiant when a local newspaper enquired whether the whites-only policy was still in operation.

“Yes, it is,” he answered, “I don’t allow black people onto my property. I don’t trust them and it’s my own property, so I can decide myself who I allow.”

Truth but not much reconciliation

When South Africa held its first democratic elections in 1994 to officially mark the passing of the Apartheid era, many felt it also spelt the beginning of the end of discrimination in a country where classification by skin colour was still crucial to determining an individual’s future.

Jody Kollapen, Chairperson of the South African Human Rights Commission, describes South Africa’s transition to democracy as “amazing” but says the reconciliation part of the process was emphasised at the expense of transformation.

White denial is the real problem — Christi van der Westhuizen, author

Kollapen believes while the Truth and Reconciliation Commission exposed the excesses of Apartheid, very little was asked of whites during the reconciliation and transformation processes.

Christi van der Westhuizen, author of “White Power and the Rise and Fall of the National Party,” agrees that a refusal by whites to acknowledge the impact of Apartheid on black South Africans is largely responsible for the current racial tensions.

“White denial is for me the real problem because they refuse to acknowledge the effect of Apartheid and colonialism in denying black people opportunities,” she says.

“Whites should look at how to use their resources and skills so they can address the imbalances of the past.”

Van der Westhuizen says government policies like affirmative action and black economic empowerment (BEE), which she believes are necessary to redress the years of oppression of blacks, have further hardened white attitudes.

“You must bear in mind that white identity post-1994 has also taken on some notion of victimhood, because they feel they suffer under BEE and affirmative action.

“There is a definite resentment among some members of the white community about having lost power. The Free State video and the shooting incident are just extreme manifestations of a continuing problem in our country,” says van der Westhuizen.

Khanya Gwaza, a black first year student at the University of Cape Town believes racism is not a problem at the institution.

“We get along perfectly across the racial lines,” he says, “one of my best mates is a white person so we do not really see colour as an issue.”

But Simeon Linstein, a second year student, says he sees incidents of racism almost every day.

“I know for example that some white students mock black lecturers for their accent – they presume everyone should speak the way they do.”

The apparent recent increase of incidents of racism is of huge concern to the Rainbow Nation.

But given that racial discrimination started in South Africa with the arrival of the first Dutch settlers in 1652, it is unrealistic to expect it to disappear just 14 years into the new democratic dawn.

Story from BBC NEWS

By John Sammon

I’ve incurred the wrath of the Free Republic, an arch conservative organization committed to domination of America by the extreme right wing. Read the full story