I wanted to make a post about the candidacy of an African American for president of the U.S. for a while, but I wasn’t sure how to face the subject without sounding like I was in favor or against certain candidate.

America as everybody knows is deeply marked by racial division for the shame of a past of slavery. And it’s not enough to say that you’re not a racist, that for you any person os the same regarding his or her skin color. Maybe for those who live outside of this country it may seem not so complicated, that by avoiding the subject it will disappear; that is what many do.

It’s a very complex and delicate issue and very hard to face and speak openly about without hurting anyone’s feelings. Everybody lives in alert mode and watchful to any mention of a racial remark about a person.

I’m in a certain way like an observer, and I can’t stop amazing at the sensitivities that the subject raises in the American society.
That’s why the last speech of Barack Obama seemed so extraordinary to me, where he faced openly the racial issue, and said what everybody silence. I felt admiration for someone who is in such an exposed position daring to talk without censorship and maybe with his candidacy at risk. His words seemed measured but sincere.

Many people criticized him for identifying with the black community when his mother is white. What many people don’t know is that in America anyone that has a black father or a mother is considered black, no matter his other origin, something that comes from the time of slavery where children born from the union between the slave owner and a slave woman where considered immediately slaves too.
The same happens in Africa to the children of a white parent, they are considered white no matter the color of their skin.

Back to the speech, I wanted to leave the full transcription because I think is an historic speech and important for everybody, those who are involved in the racial subject and those who only see it from the outside.This world can no longer survive divided, it’s an everybody’s problem. These are the words of a bi-racial man born in the present America, with ties and knowledge of Africa and that is facing the challenge to change the course of this country and that has great chances to become the next American president.
Whether you like it or not, racism exists and can’t be ignored any longer. It’s a fact, as it is also a fact that I benefit, like or not, of the privileges that my skin color gives me, something that my future children won’t have.

For those of you who read this post in Spanish, I couldn’t find the full speech translated in that language, so I translated it myself. I hope you can forgive me if I made some mistakes, I did the best that I could and with the hope that it helps someone.

If you want to see the video of the speech, here is the link:   VIDEO
Here goes the transcription, then:

Obama speech in full

Alicia