A different kind of black

Race continues to have a very powerful hold on people in the US, not least because of the country's tortured racial history. My friends in the US say white Americans like Obama because he's “a different kind of black”.

He's “jazz cool” precisely because he is does not come burdened with the racial resentments that people from the slave tradition have against African Americans. In other words, he doesn't threaten whites. He makes them feel okay.

What Obama has shown is that voters size up candidates according to their culture. If the candidate fits in, it builds trust. And if there is trust they can give the candidate their political support.

Obama knows that unemployment among African-Americans is still twice that of whites. Four black families in every ten have no man in the house, a precursor for disadvantage. But you rarely hear him talk about “black issues”.

As a fan of the television series The West Wing I can't help but draw similarities between Obama and its fictional Democrat, Matt Santos, who's Latino heritage seemed both a strength and weakness. Santos and members of his team wondered, "Shouldn't a Latino candidate advance the Latino cause?" Santos knew the risk. "Latinos coming out in favour of a Latino. Doesn't it just feed into Republican hands?" In the end he played down his ethnicity, convinced that he would be able to focus on minority issues once he took office. He had to neither alienate whites nor abandon the people who got him there.

The symbolism of Obama's success is powerful to people as far away as Wagga Wagga and Wilcannia. Communities of people isolated within Australia because of their colour, or those who have found sanctuary here after fleeing racism and ethnic violence in other parts of the world, may well be buoyed by Obama's success in the US where dollars and dynasty can often determine the Presidential outcome.

The colour of my or your skin, this win attests, is nothing compared with one’s ability to lead and inspire people of all backgrounds.