How irrelevant...

No need to say how irrelevant it is to make a parallel between France and the US.

(Completely different backgrounds, history, etc.)

Just one point:

In France, there is still a problem of diversity among the elite for French Blacks and French Arabs (which descend from the most recent immigration waves, a few decades ago, only).

But the common people are already mixing very very well (highest ratios of mixed couples in the western world with Britain).

The US have managed (at last!) to have their "minorities" better respresented in the media, politics, etc. Fine.

But that hides a less glorious situation for the common people.

The ratio of mixed weddings is still incredibly low (even though it's now rising) considering that blacks and whites have been living there together for centuries.

In France and Britain people of different communities make mixed-babies together.

We're not obsessed with race-quotas, we just *make love* with each other, you see?

What's the best strategy on the long term?

Obama's election is a great victory, but we'll win the melting-pot competition in the end :)

I hope that your wonderfull multicultural and open-minded new President can instilate some complexity in the way you see the others and lower the level of cultural arrogance out there...

To paraphrase CNN's actual slogan - No Bias, No Bull - I would say that this paper from Newsweek is Pure Bias, Pure Bull.

In the first place,  the question asked is misleading. With Obama, we are not only talking here about the son of an African immigrant, but foremost about the son of a well educated white woman from Kansas. She was the one who woke him up everyday at dawn to perfect his learning. From age ten, Obama was raised by both his white grandparents in Hawai. Obama has lived only one month with his father. As he put it during a TV interview, his life was shaped more by his father's absence than by his presence. In brief, even though his genitor was pure black, Obama doesn't come from a black background:  Like the great Alexandre Dumas, Obama is a metis.  And besides himself, there is not a single other black person in his immediate family. In his case, one can conclude that even though he is dark skinned, his education, his beliefs, and his values are pure white. In his case, the race factor becomes almost irrelevant. What is the most striking are his formidable intellect, his leadership and his human touch.

It is true, that in France, there is still some lingering racism. Nevertheless, France have not waited  for the US to elect countless people of different creeds and colors to important public positions. While in the U.S.  the GOP is still without any black representation, the French have recently elected the son of both an immigrant Hungarian father  and a jewish mother as President de la République.Française.

How about that?

I am french. I "adore" this type of article

Similar articles are done in france against America., generally in a less agressive and less "rude" wording, except maybe in our typically french revolutionnar (anarchist, trotkyst, communist) but marginal press.

My conclusion is that this  kind of paper has at least two major benefits  on the two sides of the atlantic ocean:

- first: : american rpeople can be happy to learn that they are not the most unfortunate on the earth

- secondly , french people can be happy to discover than they have not the most stupid articles on the earth

This hateful and superficial article misses a crucial point : the main reason why French black people are not likely to become president is simply that most of them are either not French citizens or too young for becoming president. A large porportion of French coloured people are immigrants and most of their children who are born in France (and are French citizens) are in their 20's or 30's, not 47 like B. Obamma. Native coloured French citizens usually live in the Caribbean islands, far from the metropolitan France. The population (black and white) of all these islands represents less than 3% of the total of France (to be compared with the proportion of African Americans in the USA which is above 12%). Nevertheless, in spite of these disadvantageous circumstances, a president of the senate in the 60's was black. His name was Gaston Monnerville and he was a strong opponent to the general De Gaulle. At this time, African Americans were not even granted the right of vote in the southern states of the USA.

If we enlarge the scope and address the problems of other minorities and victims of discriminations, we can notice that France was governed by a Jew for the 1rst time in 1936 (Leon Blum) while this hasn't happened in the USA yet (although Jews are proportionately more numerous in the USA). American citizens are very proud that a woman could run for presidency last year for the first time, but she didn't pass the presidential primary. In France Ségolène Royal passed the primary (but was defeated), and a woman (Edith Cresson) was prime minister in 1991. As for sexual discriminations we notice that the mayor of Paris is openly gay but could be the socialist candidate for the next presidential election. Although there are mayors that are openly gay in the USA, there is no evidence that any of them will be candidate in 2012.

To summarize, although it is not true that France claims not to have any race or discrimination problems (which country has none ?), the French do not expect the USA to teach them lessons of equality and justice, even if B. Obamma is elected.

Last point : why is this aggressiveness specifically directed against France although similar comments could have been done about several other countries ? Simple : there has been little French immigration in the USA (if any) which means that there is no French community and no « French Americans » likely to read Newsweek and to stop buying it if they don't appreciate the tone of an article. So there is no risk. We have little chance of finding similare articles about Poland, Germany, Ireland... for the opposite reason.

Allow me to ask just one question: why always point the finger at France?

Yes, France is far from being perfect, and certainly has its racial issues. Yes, immigrants' sons and daughters, although French themselves, have a harder time than the "franco-français"  to find a job, especially if they come from one of these housing projects known as "cités".

Yes, France still has a lot to do to achieve real equality. And as a french citizen, and the daughter of an immigrant myself, I do deplore the minorities' lack of visibility. But this is also changing - more and more candidates of various ethnic backgrounds at each election, more Black and Arab journalists, Tv anchors or show hosts every year. Not perfect, but that's a start.

Yes, we have yet to find our Obama - but why the incessant finger-pointing at France every time Americans need to gloat about something? Or need a scapegoat? Or a negative example? You could easily have chosen the UK, Germany, Spain, any of these European countries with a large immigrant population, looking forward to an Obama presidency and the changes it would probably bring in the transatlantic relations. No. France is the always-easy target. I know that just the word "France" in the title increases the chances of your article to make the Top Ten "most read" list, but please. Try to avoid the knee-jerk jab at France and look at the rest of Europe, for a change. Thank you in advance.

Well, brag if you like, but why starting pointing fingers? I think one could as well, with good reason, ask: what took the USA so long? It was far from "sometimes" a failure from the USA to ensure the rights of minorities: it was factually a failure that occurred every day over the period of 1776-1964, until the laws instituted by president Johnson prohibited the remaining institutionalised segregation in some parts of the USA.

To study at French state universities is almost for free why it probably is generally much easier for an immigrant there to achieve a top education than in the USA. That one can not not find anything resembling Mr Obama's candidacy in the French politics probably mostly shows how political cultures are reflective of demographical cultures - i.e., France is not like the USA a nation built on immigration. Most likely, France and other European nations will experience candidacys resembling of Mr Obama's when higher degrees of ethnically mixed populations becomes more common. Adding to that, race is still a factor in the USA, why I do not think that Mr Obama's candidacy ought to be interpreted as a confirmation of an American society that has moved beyond such problems. Comparing with the disturbances from a few French children under a soccer game (Children! Really!), I think it is actually more telling how many Americans can still not even begin to think of voting for a coloured American as president. Obviously, France has its racial and integration problems, but that does not change the fact that also the USA still has far to go when it comes to battle negative racial attitudes.

It is probably a true aspect of the French - and the European - appreciation of Mr Obama's candidacy that it offers "a break from the American heritage of slavery, racism and discrimination" - but this was after all only a suggestion from a single journalist. I think that the greater truth lies in how Mr Obama's candidacy translates hope for a better understanding between the USA and France/Europe after the Bush administration's unilateral policies. Also, Mr Obama is obviously a thinking politician of an unusual calibre in the American political life, which brings a lot of hope, too.

I am an American in France. This is a great country, but you are unfortunately correct about the racial divides which still exist here.  It is a shame.