It’s swirling beneath the calm

IT WAS less than 48 hours after Barack Obama made history but on Dr Martin L. King Jr Boulevard in Harlem it looked like just another day.
There was limited display of Obamania; people went about their routine in this neighbourhood long known as the black capital of America.Passengers waited patiently as a man on wheelchair boarded a bus, one guy rummaged through a trash bin in Popeyes looking for leftovers, and hair-braiding salons opened for business.
Appearances, however, can be deceptive.
“Things have changed,” said schoolteacher Karen Kingsberry, who was lunching on fried chicken. “People feel more empowered now. They feel that their voices have been heard.”
She has been telling her sixth to eighth grade students to start behaving better. “They have to work harder and be an example to the community. I want them to know that with hard work, they can achieve things.”
An African-American, Kingsberry felt Obama’s victory was not so much about skin colour. “He was speaking for all Americans.”
Look at Iowa, she said. With a 94% white population, the Hawkeye State went to Obama.
Kingsberry, who has been teaching for 20 years, said Americans had shown the world that their country had gone beyond race. “It is about character, it is about humanity. Obama won not just for himself but for all of us.”
The new president, she said, would have to pay much attention to the average Joes. “We need jobs, we need healthcare.”
But she believed Obama would deliver the goods. Quoting Confucius, she said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
She also allowed herself to still savour moments from that unforgettable Tuesday night.
“I was jumping up and down,” Kingsberry said. Then she called her mother in Georgia. “She’s in her 70s. She remembered the difficult times in the past for the blacks, when they could not even vote,” she said. Her mother wept that night.
Andrew J. Nathan, a professor of political science at Columbia University, cautioned that America’s election of a president from a minority group would not necessarily lead to similar awakenings elsewhere.
“This is really something for each country to answer to,” he said. Bolivia, however, experienced something similar when Evo Morales, an indigenous, was elected president in 2006.
He thought that the economic crisis was likely the over-riding factor for Americans picking Obama.
“There is the perception that he is better equipped to deal with the problem. On TV, he appeared more presidential. He is seen to be more competent,” he said, “unlike John McCain who wasn’t as convincing. He did not run a good campaign.”
The economic meltdown, he said, was a multi-dimensional crisis. “There are many, many problems, all at the same time. Americans are desperate for someone who can deal with them.”
Also, he said, the electorate was tired of the Republican government under George W. Bush so McCain suffered from that.
“Obama also seemed a stronger candidate, with a better personality.”
But his triumph, Nathan said, did not mean that Americans had entirely looked beyond race once and for all. “Race remains a category in how we see people.”
It was a fact, he said, that African-Americans were at a disadvantage in finding good jobs.
For now, however, it is joy to the black community.
On Dr Martin L. King Jr Boulevard in Harlem, a makeshift stall has begun selling President Obama T-shirts. “The whole world has changed!” its 27-year-old owner Salou Boubacr said, doing a little jig.
The T-shirts, he said, were printed on Wednesday shortly after Obama triumphed over his Republican rival for the White House.
“Where are you from?” he asked. “Japan? This is America, a nice country! There are opportunities to make money.”
Indeed, there is money to be made in post-election America. Capitalising on the polls fever, advertisements have pushed for products from bras to The Sopranos DVDs using clever taglines and words related to the momentous chapter in US history.
The New York Times reported that a lingerie store in Manhattan tweaked a newspaper headline from “Obama” to read “O-bra-ma”.