by Peter Wickham

Rosa Parks sat so that Martin Luther King could walk . . . Martin walked so Obama could run . . . and Obama is running so our children can fly. – Anonymous.

MANY AMERICANS SAW the election of Barack Obama as the triumphant conclusion of a civil rights movement that started with Rosa Parks in 1955, a scenario which is succinctly expressed in the text message presented above that was recently forwarded to me. It conveys the sentiment that for Blacks in America their struggle is over.

However, recent events have demonstrated the extent to which black Americans have also internalised this belief to the point where they think that they "own" the civil rights movement which is a very dangerous assumption.

The term civil rights in the American context appears to have been popularised by the struggle for racial equality; however, if properly defined, it refers to a class of rights that ensure the protection of peoples' physical integrity; procedural fairness in law; protection from discrimination based on gender, religion, race, sexual orientation, and soon; individual freedom of belief, speech, association, and the Press; and political participation (Wikipedia).

This is an entirely greater struggle, however it would appear that the triumphant attitude of black Americans has the potential to negatively affect this larger struggle.

To illustrate this point: reference is made to two events that took place in the United States last week, and the more significant is the fact that exit polls confirmed that an overwhelming majority of black people in Florida, California and Arizona voted in favour of banning same sex marriages.

This voting behaviour has perplexed many American commentators who are not familiar with the intense contradictions that dominate the psyche of black people. The confusion has not been helped by the fact that organisations like the North American Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) has gone on record nationally and in California in support of gay rights and specifically in opposition to the ban on gay marriage.

The NAACP's support coupled with the fact this last election recorded the highest ever voter turnout among black people in the United States, suggests that NAACP does not reflect the views of the majority of black Americans who prefer to see civil rights in a selfish manner.

Hence 95 per cent of black Americans went to the polls to support Obama, but also supported measures that would deny persons fundamental rights on the basis of their sexual orientation and thereafter argue that their religion prevents them from understanding that same-sex marriage is no different from the right of black people to vote.

An equally disturbing and related incident was the unprovoked attack on one Ecuadorian immigrant, which could be called a lynching in a parlance that is familiar to African Americans. This act was perpetrated by a group of mostly white teenagers which included one noticeably brown boy who was half-Latino.

The fact that these bigots were too stupid to know the difference between a Mexican and an Ecuadorian is irrelevant, but it does matter that this racially mixed group of boys would consider it appropriate to lynch a Mexican one week after America elected their first minority President speaks volumes.

The concern here is that this brown boy believed that he "arrived" and was now eligible to join the club of oppressors and one wonders how many other black Americans now see themselves as the "preferred race" and not the "equal race".

I see the potential for disturbing parallels in the case of Barbados where I often worry that our xenophobic behaviour towards the functional equivalent of Mexicans here (Guyanese) has the potential to be taken on board in much the same way by extreme (or stupid) elements in our society.

The local attitude towards same-sex marriage here in Barbados is likely to be a carbon copy of the black American attitude and for much the same reason, and while neither President Obama nor I support same-sex marriage, the difference is that we both identify with a variant called "marriage equality" which is not rooted in homophobia. It will be interesting to see if he moves away from his support for marriage equality now.