There have been anti-African student race riots in Nanjing, China. Similarly, there were racist comments on the net related to Secretary Rice's visit. However, China is also now seriously investing in Africa in a way that might have a broader effect on the society than Mao's attempts to build third world unity (by accepting African students and such).

On the balance, I don't see it having a decisive effect. Chinese elites seem to be able to manage its relation with Africa without generating controversy on this particular issue. Obviously there's questions about support for the Sudanese government, but the motivation there is resource based. I'd suspect the main effect is that anti-American protests might have elements of racism, though not as bad as what happened with the anti-Japanese protests. The PRC would probably try to downplay that sort of thing for fear of embarrassment. Although I'm speculating on a small number of data points.

Unlikely - other countries seem to draw a distinction between a nation's leaders and its inhabitants. President Obama will be treated no differently visiting say Japan or India, but if he had a niece visiting, and no one knew who she was, that's another story. Even Oprah was turned away from a Hermes store in Paris, because she did not have her hair done and makeup on, and was not recognizable.

Last night, when taking commercial breaks from the Bears-Rams game, Donny Deutsch was interviewing Chris Matthews. Most of the interview was forgettable, but Matthews did say one thing which seemed on the money - white people really like black people that are not angry at them. Oprah and Obama overcame obstacles, but do not seem to have a chip on their shoulders, and that plays well with middle-class whites.

China has a base level of racism for anyone who isn't Asian, with elevated distrust towards Japan, Korea and minority groups within China. But France definitely has anti-African sentiments. And yet if Obama's race pisses off France, I consider that a good thing.

I'm unclear on how having a multicultural heritage has anything to do with one's foreign policy views.

I am also lost on when one's color became a factor on one's abilities.Over the history of mankind,men and women of all colors have contributed to where the world is today.
Those who look at the color of a person am sure do so to compensate on their lack of something.

Don't you think?

www.allkenya.co.ke

No foreign government is going to insult a President of the United States on account of something like race or sex. Neither is either factor likely to get a President much more benefit overseas than, for example, President Reagan got for his Irish ancestry.

Race and sex are factors in American domestic politics, and when Americans like this Johnson fellow suggest that an African American would "project better on the world stage" what they mean is that such a candidate would go over better with them if they were foreigners. Except insofar as many Americans do think about foreign affairs in precisely these terms, the statement has no meaning.

Sure, it's possible that many non-Americans will think less of us because we have President who is black. But who cares? Just one more example of the U.S. "going it alone"!

China is the obvious one, as the above commenters have noted. The less obvious but perhaps more pervasive one is the Arab world. Political cartoons featuring Condoleeza Rice as a particularly ugly monkey are quite common over there, and there's a reason they don't care much about certain happenings in Darfur. I was surprised to have a couple of friends of Indian and Pakistani heritage that subcontinentals, most certainly including their immigrant parents, seriously dislike American blacks as well, although it's not clear that this is a racial thing so much as it is cultural, and it may have more to do with domestic issues like affirmative action.

I think Obama would face less respect and more contempt from the masses in these countries. How much that matters to the actual foreign policy of China or an Arab state...

as leader of the free world he'd kind of be the apotheosis of king's 'dream' -- it's the content of his character, stupid. i can only think that'd be looked on as a positive reflection of (an enlightened, if you will) america.

The easy answer to Dan's question is, yes -- there are parts of the world that won't look too keenly on "President" Obama's race. Whether or not Obama "hates" white people, KXB mentions, there will certailny be sectors of the electorate throughout the United States that will hold Obama's African heritage against him in the polling booth -- Harold Ford came astoudingly close to winning in TN last month, but would it have been realistic to expect a similar split if the Corker/Ford race was Presidential? Probably not.

On the international front, Barack Obama could be 100% African, or he could be 100% green; international opinions of the United States will improve, however slightly or drastically, with a POTUS that's not GWBush -- whatever race the future commander-in-chief may be. What an uncomfortable question to answer, Dan . . .

The easy answer to Dan's question is, yes -- there are parts of the world that won't look too keenly on "President" Obama's race. Whether or not Obama "hates" white people, KXB mentions, there will certailny be sectors of the electorate throughout the United States that will hold Obama's African heritage against him in the polling booth -- Harold Ford came astoudingly close to winning in TN last month, but would it have been realistic to expect a similar split if the Corker/Ford race was Presidential? Probably not.

On the international front, Barack Obama could be 100% African, or he could be 100% green; international opinions of the United States will improve, however slightly or drastically, with a POTUS that's not GWBush -- whatever race the future commander-in-chief may be. What an uncomfortable question to answer, Dan . . .

Russia seems to be another place where anti-black racism is virulent and generally accepted.

But so what? Yes, "ordinary" black people will have a hard time in China, Japan, the Arab world, Russia, and the 16th Arrondissment of Paris. But once you've risen to become head of government, you are a unique world figure. The individual trumps the ethnic affiliation. Did other countries refuse to deal with Britain while Benjamin Disraeli, a Jew by ancestry, was prime minister?

And anyway, do the Chinese et al. have some special fondness for white, male, Protestant, Scots-Irish Americans? That's the largest group of our presidents so far in history.

As someone who's spent time in various portions of Latin America, the class connotations of skin color seem to drive a sensitivity to shaded differences that struck this American as occasionally bizarre. Even Brazil, which prides itself on a rhetoric of equality, seems awful quick to subsume its racial commentary along geographical lines (the hard-working south vs. the lassitude of the northeast).

Take it for what it's worth, but the least self-conscious mingling of different skin tones I've seen in Latin America has been in Cuba....

"white people really like black people that are not angry at them"

I think you can divide out the white and the black:

people really like people that are not angry at them

Johnson's quote is also notable because it has not been seven years since 9/11, so we haven't had 7 years of kick-ass-go-it-alone foreign policy. I wish we had, instead of Powellism and Bakerism, but it doesn't say much for Johnson's math skills either.

I think Johnson’s seven years referred to 2008, when the new president would be elected.

From my experience, Latin America certainly struggles with racism. A couple of anecdotes:

My boss, who is Nigerian, has a black friend from Canada who dated a woman of Colombian descent for 4 years. They wanted to get married, but her mother eventually put the kibosh on the relationship because of the boyfriend’s race. This even though the daughter’s Colombian father—and therefore the daughter herself—was of African descent.

My roommate in Argentina, while watching a soccer game on tv, screaming racial epithets at a player of African descent on the opposing team. Later, a cab driver in Argentina proudly telling me that racism does not exist in Argentina.

However much racism is entrenched in Latin America, I also believe that many people there—and around the world—have been taught and absorbed the lessons of the American and South African civil rights movements on some level, leading to my third anecdote:

In Costa Rica on a hiking tour with my African-American fiancé and Costa Rican-American sister in law, having one of the tour assistants repeatedly tell us “I love black people,” with a visible sense of urgency. It was such a strange and awkward thing to be saying, it was as if he were trying to convince himself as much as us that he wasn’t racist.

So I think yes, a President Obama would be met with racism in much, perhaps most, of the world. But I think the fact of his presidency and his actions as president would go a long way towards further embedding civil rights norms in parts of the world where they are sorely needed.

Obama will have much more PR problems if he is going to percieved as an "oreo", black on the outside white in the inside, like Condi or Powell. I know several white Europeans and non-Europeans who dislike Condi because she is seen as a sell-out.

I also find it very interesting that other minorities (hispanics, asians, indians/pakis etc) generally have more negative views of blacks than whites generally have. Somebody should remind them that they are still "chinks, wetbacks, Babus etc" for the racist whites. Black-bashing don't really help...

I think a Jewish presidnet would carry more baggage than a president of African descent.

Europe, Asia, Middle East, Russia

Well, poor Bush gets lambasted for being an intellectual midget around the world - I still remember the headline in the Russian paper Izvestiya after the 04 election "Americans re-elect the moron."

I think the association with Bush is unfair to the millions of morons around the world....

Ya, I hate those "media coronations," er, "candidacies."

The most anodyne, vanilla, unqualified candidates always seem to emerge.

You know, like the President.

Could someone please explain to me why Condi and Colin are oreos? Is a black Republican automatically an oreo, or did they betray their heritage in some way? What about millions of middle and upper-class black Americans who see themselves first are middle-class, or in terms of their profession, and second as black? There are lots of Americans for whom their heritage is NOT the most important part of their identity. What about an Italian-American policeman? Is he a pastrami sandwich? (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

OpenBorderMan - Are black Republicans automatically Oreos? Yeah, pretty much. Hard to know what else to call it when a black person rushes to embrace the party that welcomed the Dixiecrats with open arms once the Dems stopped being the party of segregation.

Tequila: The democrats stopped being the party of segregation, partly because black people joined the party and argued against it internally. I can certainly understand why a lot of african americans reflexively vote against Republicans, but I don't think you can assume ignorant ("oreo") motives of those who choose to join the party without more information.

Obama does seem to have crossed that amorphous line that US whites have between being somewhat fearful and suspicious of most black people but just *loving* some of them. And he managed to do it without being a Republican. I think that demonstrates some political skill. I'm guessing that will also translate to Europe, which has similar dynamics wrt to race (although they like to believe otherwise).

Tequila, I think your comment goes right to the heart of the matter. The Dixecrat defection was over 50 years ago. Since then, the Democratic party has taken black voters mostly for granted and pandered to poor voters of all colors with a philosophy of victimhood and entitlements. There are plenty of blacks who do not buy that crap any longer. They want good jobs, education for their children, and value for their tax dollars; same as white people. That does not make them oreos. Not every issue is about race. Have I been blunt enough?

i just think it will be absolutely hilarious for those countries that think Americans are narrow minded to make sense of the election of a man with this name, of this background, and of his optimism. It will really mess with some minds.

Sorry to let a fact or two get in the way of a good story, but the link you are posting to is a wee bit suspect. Anyone who thinks Thierry Henry is English could do with a '101' guide to world football. TH may live in England, have an English wife, an English kid, feel English, want to be English (for all I know), but he's definitely French - in fact, he's the country's record goal scorer. The other incident that the article refers to (Aragones-Reyes-Henry ('he is a 'black shit, you are better than him')) was to do with club football - at the time, both Reyes and Henry played for Arsenal (in London).

Nitpicky I know. But still ...

1) Being black could be the least of Sen. Obama's problems. My understanding is that Sen. Obama's father was a Muslim, and that Sen. Obama converted to a Christian sect. If my information is correct, that would make Sen. Obama an apostate, and hence per se liable to the death penalty in numerous Islamic states.

2) StevinVT: Your childish joke? about associating Pres. Bush with morons ignores the fact that Pres. Bush had (marginally) better undergraduate grades at Yale than Sen. Kerry, and we know that Pres. Bush at least wasn't trying hard to max his GPA, and the fact that Pres. Bush flew F102s, a notoriously difficult and dangerous plane to fly. Ad hominem attacks undermine your point.

1) Being black could be the least of Sen. Obama's problems. My understanding is that Sen. Obama's father was a Muslim, and that Sen. Obama converted to a Christian sect. If my information is correct, that would make Sen. Obama an apostate, and hence per se liable to the death penalty in numerous Islamic states.

2) StevinVT: Your childish joke? about associating Pres. Bush with morons ignores the fact that Pres. Bush had (marginally) better undergraduate grades at Yale than Sen. Kerry, and we know that Pres. Bush at least wasn't trying hard to max his GPA, and the fact that Pres. Bush flew F102s, a notoriously difficult and dangerous plane to fly. Ad hominem attacks undermine your point.