Racism Persists (Chapter 389)

The Christian Science Monitor reports, as have other publications, that many in Europe welcome Senator Barack Obama as president-elect, but we are reminded that not every American approves of that election: “The election of America’s first black president has triggered more than 200 hate-related incidents, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center – a record in modern presidential elections. Moreover, the white nationalist movement, bemoaning an election that confirmed voters' comfort with a multiracial demography, expects Mr. Obama’s election to be a potent recruiting tool – one that watchdog groups warn could give new impetus to a mostly defanged fringe element,” writes the Christian Science Monitor’s staff writer Patrik Jonsson (yes, Patrik Jonsson), in the publication’s November 17, 2008 issue (“After Obama's win, white backlash festers in US”). It is widely thought that the first Africans arrived in America in 1619; and it seems as if that presence is not, after all this time, fully accepted. Surprise.