You’ve finally arrived, then?

November 5th, 2008 § 0 comments

So it was an historic presidential election.
There were 2 chances for women to make it into one of the top two postions in the country, with Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin and and if that wasn’t enough, Barak Obama became, or will be when sworn in, the first African American President of the USA.

Wow. What an election.

But is that much of a big deal?
Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the UK for eleven years, coming to power in 1979, when a womans place was in the wrong kitchen and ended eleven years later. It is probably easier for a woman to become the prime minister, and probably president, now than it has been in, well ever.
The UK has had suffrage for women since 1928 and the US since 1920.

The USA had it’s major civil rights upheaval in the sixties, which resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed racial segragation, and the Voting Rights Act (1965). It’s taken over 40 years for a non-white person to get to the top.
But South Africa has already had non-white presidents for years, since 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela.
In both cases there is a history of a couple hundred years various forms of segragation, discrimination and slavery, but it’s taken the more advanced country with over 40 years of legal equality to elect a non-white leader.

Considering the above, should the big question not have been ‘Is America ready for a black President?’ but ‘What the fucks taken you so long?’.

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