Thoughts on the last week

Just a thought on the US election.

There has been plenty of news regarding the first black president of the US, Barack Obama. And plenty more articles deriding the use of the word "black" when Mr. Obama is actually half white, just as much white as he is black.

The reason so many mixed-race people are automatically referred to as black is simply because, according to the US "one drop" law, anyone with the smallest amount of black heritage has, in the past, been legally black. Of course this does not reflect equality or skin colour necessarily, and in fact the law has been abused by many people cashing in on the positive discrimination regulations set out to encourage more African-American students to attend university.

The difference in other countries, principally Brazil, is that race categorisation has historically been based on physical characteristics, such as size/shape of nose, hair texture, skin colour (i.e. shade of brown), rather than just whether one has an African grandparent/ great grandparent etc.

Anyway, I am not saying the one system is better than the other; in the current age of globalisation, even the term "mixed race" is going to be much more difficult to define, but that's my two cents on the matter.

Besides, Obama is not going to succeed as president just because of his mixed heritage. The shape of his legacy remains to be seen.