Magazine Roundup - signandsight

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The New York Review of Books 03.03.2008 (USA)

History is being made in the USA, believes writer Darryl Pinckney. He first sensed it on the evening of the Democratic primary in New Hampshire while at the hairdressers in Harlem: America is on the verge of voting for a black president. "Though Obama has been praised by some for not making race an issue in his campaign, and for not coming off as the black candidate, his race most certainly is crucial to his broad appeal. Black people can appreciate as much as white people the inclusiveness of his mixed-race heritage and that his story is in part that of an immigrant. But this is not a color-blind election. People aren't voting for Obama in spite of the fact that he is black, or because he is only half-black, they are voting for him because he is black, and this is a whole new feeling in the country and in presidential politics. Forty years ago, Robert Kennedy was sharply criticized for saying that a black man probably could be elected president of the United States in fifty years' time. 'Victory tonight,' my barber, Mr. Sherlock, said as we shook hands."...SOURCE