The 2008 presidential election results are out . Barack Obama has swept the polls. I personally am for the Democrats especially after the three trillion dollar war. But the post election media coverage reminded me of the media coverage of Prativa Patil's election as the President of India. The little known Congress politician from Maharashtra got nominated (to many sceptics surprise) for the first citizen's seat. The newspapers came out with articles calling her "The first woman President..." blah blah blah. While this was certainly factually true, does this really indicate women's' emancipation in India? Hardly.
Now that Barack has been selected as the Chief Executive of USA, NY Times goes on to write Sen. Obama (now President) has swept away "the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose him as its first black chief executive." Again all these is factually great. But will these really help the poorer part of the African American populace? Sen. Obama went to some of the finest Ivy league schools as a student, taught at the University of Chicago for twelve years. So, should one classify him as an accomplished politician and attorney or as an African American political leader. Probably both but hyping the later identity only sounds unreasonable to me. As of now, Sen. Obama hasn't done anything to reach the level of Dr. M.L. King in terms of black (economic) freedom. It'll be an arduous journey for him given the high expectations of the American people and definitely the black voters who registered a higher turnout this time round.
