A new day for America – is it time to draw a line under the past?

All my life I have absolutely refused to refer to my race unless I have to (usually filling in application forms for jobs, which still bugs me). To me I am a human being first and foremost and I think in life I will always face far more discrimination due to my gender rather than the colour of my skin but even I had to shed a tear of pride on seeing Barack Obama elected as the President of the United States. I say this as a person of mixed heritage, not a black person or a white person. On paper Obama is black and even though I’ve read on many forums that he is as much white as he is black and while that is technically true, these comments are usually said by exactly the same racists who if the BNP or the Ku Klux Klan or whoever came to power, we would be top of the list to be kicked out because they’d never see us as white. I was told by one person once on the Sun discussions forum that I would have no right to ever stand as an MP in the UK because I’m half black. Forgetting that I was born in this country, my dad’s been a British citizen since the early 1960s and most of all my mum’s family can be traced back to Birmingham as far back as the early 18th century, my grand-dad fought in both world wars etc etc. Just because I don’t need fake bake means I could never stand for parliament – ridiculous.

I take comments like this with a pinch of salt and always have done thankfully but I am sure President Obama, along with people like Lewis Hamilton, Leona Lewis, Melanie B and many other mixed race people have faced the same discrimination from both sides of our heritage. Quite often black people don’t recognise you as belonging with them and white people see you as black. I think younger mixed race people probably have it a bit easier because it’s quite common now, but when I was at school in the 1970s, there was only me and one other mixed race girl in a school of 300! It gives you the ability to see the very best and worst of human nature on all sides and I think this will give Obama the ability to embrace all Americans.

What moves me the most about the whole election is that it shows the majority of Americans are willing to look beyond a person’s skin colour and judge them for the person they are and what they can offer. Given that this is a country that had slavery up until the 19th century, and indeed when Obama was born the Rev Martin Luther King was fighting for equal rights for blacks, this is a fantastic move forward and it is so sad the Reverend isn’t alive today to see this. I am pretty confident in saying that if a black or mixed race person came along in the UK offering a proper alternative to Gordon Brown, we too would elect them as we’re all pretty much as fed up with New Labour and the Americans were with Bush.

This is a time for people of colour to be proud of their achievements but also to realise the majority of white people are not racist and will judge you as a human being first and foremost. You are always going to get racist knuckleheads but they’re not even worth bothering about in the first place as whatever their ridiculous views are, it’s their problem not yours.

Here’s the stinger – my only reservation with Obama is that he is actually a secret muslim…….only joking. No, seriously, I see echoes of Tony Blair – the young dynamic politician promising change after years of stagnation, the young, cute family and the lawyer wife who I am led to believe is a bit of a liability and doesn’t know when to shut up. Tony Blair came to power 11 years ago promising to change Britain for the better and instead this country is in a terrible mess due to his weak leadership, stupid politics and willingness to sell us out to the EU (something that won’t happen to American obviously). Obama might seem like a breath of fresh air and I sincerely hope for the US that it isn’t the same, but Blair did for us and was full of nothing but empty promises.

That’s just me being cautious. But that aside, congratulations America - I think you chose really well!