It's called the White House, not the Black House

From the Middle East

Sana'a, Yemen

That Barack Hussein Obama is a serious contender for the United States Presidency is still difficult for many in the Arab world to fathom. The popular narrative on America has little room for a black man with an Arab middle name in the most powerful office in the land and so the race for an explanation is on. So far I have come across three expositions of the Obama phenomenon.

The first is one that will be familiar to Americans with memories of that tragic year when death extinguished hope and men were made martyrs. Like Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy before him, Obama's promises of a better world will, I am told, be thwarted by an assassins bullet and in a place, were conspiracy is seen as the natural order of things, the bullet will be no accident. "If Obama represents a serious challenge to the established order of things then the countries elites will find a way of disposing him, that my friend is the way of the world."

The second is that Obama is a naïve man whose ideals will be dashed by the brutal facts of realpolitik. That the promise of change will turn out to be nothing more than the overwrought rhetoric of the campaign. Once in power America's first black President will do what Presidents have always done. Here that is not seen as a good thing.

The third is the simplest; that is that he will not win, that he cannot win, that for all the hype America will not choose him. "How an the land that gave us George Bush give us Barack Obama! White people will never vote for him, it is called the White House habibi, not the Black House!" When I tell people that whites are voting for Barack in droves, that his rallies bring together every color and creed I am looked at with great incredulity, "really, its not just minorities? Cause you can't win in America with just minorities, Latinos and blacks and people like that, you need the Whites."

If Obama wins and God willing he will, there will no doubt be those who will attempt to tell the same story of America and its place in the world but it will not be easy, something will have shifted and old tales will sound stale and tired. Symbolism matters and there can be no denying the power of that second name in a region where names still carry the weight of history, of kin and kith. If Obama delivers on his promise and creates the space for a new dialogue, it just may be possible for America and the Arab world to reassess one another and move beyond the polarizing politics of the last eight years.