Obama on race

Having listened to and read Obama's speech on race this past week, I have become even more impressed with his intelligence and poise.

As a friend remarked it seems to be a generational thing, to admit there's a problem and then say we need to deal with it.

It would nice if this were politics as usual!

Obama dealt with the issue and really challenged America to look beyond the stereotypes on both sides and really as John Stewart said, he talked to us about race as if we were adults.

I have read his first book dreams of my father and he deals with the race issue there. When I first read it, the thing I kept remarking about was how different his experience of race was from mine. Even though we are both the product of a black father and a white mother, my experience in Canada was different. He adopted the black side of his experience and worked in a black neighbourhood in Chicago. I feel a much stronger attachment to the more general immigrant experience, and although black do not necessarily identify with a larger black culture.

The other book which I found fascinating was my Lawrence Hill, on growing up mixed race in Canada. I found some of his descriptions outside of my experience, while others were bang on. A hilarious one, was how he began playing badminton in Canada, and when he went to the U.S he was told that badminton was a white man's sport [despite of course that Asians are dominant]. Now I am a badminton player, but have never seen that reaction, though to be honest I can picture it easily.

One of the interesting things for me, is the difference between how blacks are seen in Canada and the United States. Here we don't talk about race, or if we do it doesn't easily include black, it sits beneath the surface and is in some ways overshadowed by a debate about multiculturalism. However it can flare up, as in the debate in Toronto over an Afro centric school.

I'll always remember the fact that most people I know, never really remark on my race. On occasion when people are trying to identify me they will mention my race, but it's rare.

Now the one exception which made me strongly aware of my identity was an old roommate who was from the U.S. I was always very clearly identified as his black friend. It was a bit discomforting, but it also made me realize how no one else really referred to me that way, though perhaps it was beneath the surface. There were a few occasions when I remarked about being black, and was greeted with a shocked or surprised look, followed by "you're black?"

Obama speech was a reminder of the difference between race relations here and in the United States. It was a call to dialogue and discussion, and I leave even more impressed than before.