Assumption of Racism

By Michael Breen

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States has stunned Koreans, for there is a widespread unexamined assumption in this country that white Americans are racists who would never want to lose power to other races.

This assumption may be fed by some Korean-Americans who will tell you that white Americans are racist.

I remember telling a Ghanaian-Scottish friend at a university in Edinburgh that I was more fearful and prejudiced of uneducated white youth than of him. Of course, I noticed he was black but it didn't mean anything. When he explained that many black people would take it as evidence of prejudice if you both held a door open for them (trying too hard) and refused to hold a door open (bigoted), I figured that my ``racism" was their problem, not mine.

Now, the election of Obama should help dispel some of the racism that does exist among whites and some of the racism of the reverse kind that exists among the so-called minorities. I expect, though, that the race card is so politically useful in America that we will soon hear from someone that Obama is not really black enough or has sold out to whitey.

In Korea, there may now be an assumption that Obama is going to fill the White House with black people, rather as a Korean president would bring in his hometown, university and church pals to the Blue House.

Elsewhere, as our newspapers told us yesterday, the victory has already worked its magic abroad to put America back where it belongs as a most loved country.

It has inspired, among others, Kenyans, Europeans, Arabs, Muslims, and the people of the Japanese fishing town of Obama, who have, if not the American dream, at least their own dream of America, ranging from its generous use of power to having a world leader they can feel a connection with on the TV news every night.

And, last but by no means least, Obama's win inspires expatriates in Asia, for he is one of us. We are the families of diplomats, business people, soldiers, journalists, teachers and adventurers, many in mixed-race marriages, who spend a lot of time at 33,000 feet and don't quite have anywhere to call ``home.''

We are the new global tribe. We communicate in English, which is important because, not only do we once again have an Americans president whose speaks the language but who is also the best orator in the Senate.

Americans abroad may once again hold their heads up and be proud of the man who represents them. And we pro-American ``third country nationals" can express our views without being treated like closet fascists.

Given all this, a broad global audience will tune in for the inauguration in January, for what will almost certainly be a memorably inspiring speech.

From then on, it will all be downhill.

There are, after all, some very serious events happening and it won't be long before commentators forget that he inherited them and didn't cause them.

What will this mean for us in Korea? As the prime minister pointed out this week before the vote, the Korean relationship with America is so close that either candidate would have sufficed.

The big difference is that while McCain stood for free trade, Obama has criticized the FTA between the two countries. Right now, it awaits ratification. But Democrats aren't as great fans of free trade as Republicans and their domination of the House and Senate doesn't bode well for the agreement.

Will Obama's election mean an end to anti-Americanism in Korea? No, for it has nothing to do with who is the president in Washington. Given its logic, the flaying the Korean economy is about to experience because of the sins of Wall Street and the failure of the trade agreement, which is far more in Korea's than in America's interest, will probably not be the subject of anti-U.S. protest.

For that, we'll need to wait for something really important, like Paris Hilton applying for a Japanese visa to visit the Dokdo islets.

President-elect Obama will probably not make the mistake of his predecessors in dealing with North Korea. Both Clinton and Bush refused to engage in their first terms and found themselves in the end forced to by Pyongyang's nuclear diplomacy. During this wasted period, hundreds of thousands of North Koreans died from famine and the country developed nuclear weapons.

Obama needs to engage North Korea but have no other expectation from this policy than that, until the regime changes, the goal itself is the frustrating sequence of talks and talks about talks.

The election does offer something else for Korea in the gracious behavior of the rival candidates. In their speeches after the result became clear, they were very honorable in acknowledging one another.

Obama also immediately did the opposite of what Korean president-elects do and lowered expectation. ``The road ahead will be long,'' he told supporters in Chicago. ``Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term.''

Michael Breen is chairman of Insight Communications Consultants Exclusive Partner of FD International. He can be reached at mike.breen@insightcomms.com.