Obama isn’t black

I don’t get it. I mean, am I the only person in the world who’s noticed that Barack Obama isn’t black? He’s bi-racial. I don’t see why his election has prompted such an orgy of self-congratulation in America. (For an example, see Anne Applebaum’s piece on the front of today’s Telegraph.) How can the election of a light-skinned man of colour assuage the guilt white Americans feel about slavery? Slaves were black. Barack Obama isn’t descended from slaves. He was born in Hawaii and raised by two white people. He looks like a skinny white guy with a tan. If America had elected a guy who looked like Robert Mugabe to become President, then I’d be impressed. But this guy? My Jewish father-in-law spends a week in the sun, he goes darker than Obama. I married his daughter. Does that make me a non-racist? 

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Matthew Lynn

Spain will regret its 100 per cent expat property tax

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