The Earliest Time for a Black President

[minionofmidas]

I think 2004. Yes we just had to figure out how to get the black community to vote.

Not quite...

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Some of them. And then there's those with "misgivings" etc who still voted for Obama because, even for racists, there may be more important issues than race. And they're the ones that the following part of the post is mostly about:

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Of course, I'm still unconvinced an actual Black man could win election in the US today.

[minionofmidas]

Yeah, I mostly agreed with you.

[minionofmidas]

Sort of like they did for Evo Morales?

[minionofmidas]

Obama's african ancestry came from Kenya and not from Georgia. He's afro-american but not black in the usual context used in the US. The exotic factor gives him a free pass that a black candidate wouldn't get.

 So, racists only vote for black people as long as they have heritage from Africa and not America?

Obama is Light-skinned, lacking an accent, rich, not obviously 'ghetto/urban', etc. He's not the same as say Jesse Jackson Jr. or Harold ford.

Either of whom is light-skinned, lacking an accent, and rich. Jackson is also not really "obviously 'ghetto/urban'' - what he is, though, is linked (via his father) to the Civil Rights era.

The exotic factor didn't give Obama a free pass, but it certainly helped. A lot.

[minionofmidas]

I'm looking forward to the day a Native American becomes President!

That was 1924, since we're on a retro kick.

You're thinking of

a) Vice President
b) 1928
c) a man with acknowledged Native American ancestry - even a tribally enrolled man - who used his Native American ancestry to political advantage. But not actually "a Native American" by any definition that would be recognized in popular usage anywhere in Indian Country.
That Curtis could be selected as Vice President is certainly significant - it couldn't have happened 50 years earlier - but not really the same thing. Jonathan Windy Boy would not be electable today.

[minionofmidas]

No, he's referring to Calvin Coolidge, who had American Indian ancestors through his grandmother, Sara Brewer, although your story about Curtis is more interesting.

In that case he's still got the year wrong.