Race In Barack Obama

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Barak Obama is the 44th president of the United States and also the1st black man to hold this position. He has emerged from a society of segregation to become one of the greatest leaders of the free world. He has followed in the footsteps of many great black leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. These freedom fighters have paved the way for the emergence of African Americans as leaders. Martin Luther King Jr. was a fore runner in the passing of the voting rights act of 1965 which gave everyone the chance to vote, regardless of sex, race, and class. This voting rights act now allows millions of people the opportunity to exercise their franchise. This voting freedom is one of the factors which helped to gain Obama his victory in the 2008 United States election and again in 2012. People of all races can now vote and this paper will therefore seek to critically asses the role of race in the election of Barack Obama as President.
Before I asses the role of race in the election of Barack Obama, I will first give its definition. According to Malik, one of the striking aspects of race is that everyone knows what a race is but no one can quite define it. He went on to note that in popular language, race is usually synonyms with colour. Therefore, we would call African Americans one race, Asians, another race and White (European) another. The popular idea of race is buttressed by academic and political arguments. Much academic study continues to use the concept of race as both an analytical tool and an explanatory determinant (Malik, 1996). To understand race then, requires us to investigate how the understanding of that relationship between humanity, society and nature is socially and historically constructed: how, for e...

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...0usd a year went to Obama. People who make $100000usd to $150000usd and $150000usd to $200000usd, voted in favour of McCain, at 51% and 50% respectively. Obama, however, got the majority vote of the people who make over $200000usd a year. This was 52%. 52% of college educated American voted for Obama versus a 46%age for McCain. Obama also got 69% of first time voters and 50% of return voters. 60% of Americans who possesses a moderate ideology voted in favour of Obama. Obama was also successful in obtain majority votes of the different religious groups, with only Protestants giving McCain the majority which was 54%. 52% of married Americans voted for McCain and 65% of unmarried supported Obama. Majority of the gay and lesbian population also supported Obama with 70% of their votes. These statistics shows that race was not the factor which contributed to Obama’s win.

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