Quote:
Originally Posted by sparkmaster
I admit, watching Obama doing his speech at mile high gave me a bit of a chill. It was seeing history, really.
I don't like Obama because of his policies. But I'm glad he's running. It is telling that a Black man can run in the US and have a very good chance at being president. Honestly, I don't think there's any other nation in the world (asides from perhaps canada) that a minority can run for the highest office. It's especially telling that, with obama being so popular, no European country could elect a minority to high office, much less the presidency or prime ministry.
Obama's running proves how far the US has come from the days of Jim Crow. We still have a long, long way to go before we can genuinely say that race is not a factor in society, but this demonstrates that we are on the right track.
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The US is the only country in the world that would tolerate minorities in power? Tommyrot.
You get a lot of Europeans accusing Americans of arrogance and I'm normally the first to say, 'now that's not fair we're just as snooty towards them as we accuse them being brash towards the world' but the statement you made is exactly the kind of thing that would cause people to make the accusation.
Firstly, bear in mind that there are far more ethnic minorities in the US than Europe - whites make up some 68% of the US population, they make up 92%, 91%, 91% and 89% for Britain, Germany, France and Spain respectively and only around 5% of the total EU population is non-white. Accordingly you would expect a greater proportion of minorities to be in power in the states, however, just 5% of US senators are from ethnic minority groups while 3% of British MPs are, 2% of French National Assembly members are and 1.7% of MEPs are. These figures aren't great but proportionally non-whites are equally or better represented in the corridors of European power than they are across the pond.
'No European country could elect a minority into high office'? There have been several members of cabinet in Westminster from minority groups so that's incorrect. Furthermore, women (not a minority, granted, but an underrepresented group) have been at the highest office in Europe for decades. Not to the extent that they should be but at rather more impressive levels than the 0% of the USA. Two of the big three European economies have had female premiers.
Understand that I'm not championing European records on diversity because they aren't what they should be but but your supercilious assertions of minorities having no chance at power outside of North America is quite wrong. Racism in the states is, if anything, stronger than in Western Europe at least, and you'd have a hard time trying to claim your society is more tolerant than those over here.
NB. I couldn't find figures for Congress or the parliaments of Germany or Spain in the quick search I did.