A black prime minister?
If America, with its shameful history of racism, can produce a politician like Barack Obama, why can't the UK?
Lola Adesioye guardian.co.uk, Thursday June 19 2008
Having watched Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battle for the Democratic nomination, I couldn't help but draw parallels with British politics. As someone who spent the first 10 years of her life, in the 1980s, with Margaret Thatcher as prime minister and leader of the Conservative party - in fact, I used to see Margaret and her husband Dennis every morning on my way to school - a female presidential candidate did not seem so groundbreaking to me. In that regard, the UK is light years ahead of America. However, it's a different story when you consider how well a black person would fare in Britain if running for prime minister. Obama has said that his story could only have happened in America - and he is right. The odds of a black prime minister in Britain anytime soon are slim.
There are various suggestions for why Obama's success is more likely to have happened in America than in the UK. Some say that it's a question of numbers. Since black people make up 13% of the American population, in comparison to only 3% of the UK population (pdf), it seems plausible that an African-American has more chance at achieving Obama-like success than a black Briton. However, numbers alone cannot account for such success. African-Americans are still, like black Britons, statistically under-represented in American politics, although they are more involved than any other minority group. Obama is currently the only African-American in the Senate, and only the third to have been popularly elected since Reconstruction. Similarly since 1868 there have only been 121 African-Americans in Congress. However, African-Americans – Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell are two prominent examples - have been able to gain far more political power than black Britons, who only make up 0.77% of all MP's and who have not yet cracked some of the higher echelons of the British political system, noticeably the cabinet which has only had three black ministers, Paul Boateng, Baroness Amos and Baroness Scotland.
Some might also say that African-Americans have also been in the US longer and have had more time to entrench themselves in American life. There is some element of truth to this. However, this ignores the fact that African-Americans have only been able to interact "equally" in America for the past 40 years, which is actually shorter than the length of time in which African-Caribbean immigrants have been in England. More significantly, Obama is essentially a first-generation African-American, so that theory does not apply in his case.
How does a country like America, with such a shameful racist history, manage to produce someone like Obama, while the UK – apparently less segregated, more diverse and racially tolerant – seems unable to? The answer lies in the fluidity and social mobility that is available in the US. The UK is still very much a class-based society in which it is hard for people to transcend the social and economic positions into which they were born.
The meritocratic, classless concept of the American Dream, which gives Americans a very strong notion that anything can be achieved through hard work, regardless of racial, social or economic background, is both symbolically and actually powerful. While America certainly has its share of race-related problems, and while there are many African-Americans for whom the dream is still elusive, it has also given rise to some of the world's most powerful, influential and successful black people, such as Oprah Winfrey, Bob Johnson and now Barack Obama.
Sports and entertainment are channels through which black people have been able to excel in the UK. However, in professions of power such as in the media, politics and finance, black Britons lack influence and visibility. The black British middle class – which I define by its ability to make significant social change - is small and is generally made up of people whose parents were already privileged. This is because social mobility is still limited for black Britons (pdf). British research finds that there is still a significant link between a parent's background class and their child's subsequent class, despite the child's educational achievement. Even when ethnic minorities appear to have moved into a higher social class in the UK, this may simply be to compensate for the downward mobility that migrants tend to experience when they first arrive in the UK. It is also possible that people do not feel that they are able to transcend their background in the same way that Americans do.
I also doubt whether, in the UK, a potential black prime minister could ever been seen as anything more than one who represents black issues. Watching the debate over all-black shortlists earlier this year, it is clear that black MPs are still mostly expected to represent black constituencies. This is a type of pigeonholing that Obama has gone to lengths to avoid, casting himself as an "everyman" who is representative of all Americans. I am not so sure – in a country in which, for example, black people are still uneasy calling themselves "English" and in which some English people insist they can't be - that white people in the UK are able to view a black Briton as being a true representative of their nation.
Although there are black Britons who are making inroads in British politics, such as Streatham MP Chuka Umunna and Ray Lewis, deputy mayor for young people, the UK will need to change as a society if there is to ever be a black person with a good shot at becoming prime minister.
Lola Adesioye: Is Britain ready for a black prime minister? | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
A black prime minister?
A black prime minister? -
23-06-08, 07:34 PM
Usa! Usa! Usa! -
24-06-08, 02:37 AM
