Is Obama the worlds first minority Chief Executive?
This question was hashed out in this thread last night. A bunch of examples were given, including white leaders in South Africa (though of dubious democratic legitimacy), Jewish PM’s in England, and a bunch of others. People kept giving the example of Morales in Bolivia, but he’s actually from the racial majority — the previous mestizo leaders in Bolivia were from the racial minority. Most other countries in Latin America have been or are lead by politicians from racial minorities — usually white, but you’d include Fujimori in Peru, too. Depending on how you define “minority,” an argument can be made for including Sarkozy (Hungarian and Jewish ancestry) and Canadians from Quebec. And by “racial,” are you including what gets called “tribal” or “ethnic group,” or religious affiliation? Because then you could include everyone from Saddam Hussein to Moi in Kenya. So no, this is not a first, no matter how you
As Dee says, it depends how you define the minority e.g. British PM Benjamin Disraeli was an ethnic Jew, although he was baptised into the CofE as a teenager.
An important distinction is lost in these examples. None are members of a subordinated racial minority and that’s what people are talking about. There’s an argument for Disraeli, but that’s hardly recent and far from obvious. Morales is from a subordinated majority, Mori and White South Africans are from economically dominant minorities. I’m not sure you’ll ever find a democracy that elected a member of a small ethnic or racial minority that is substantially disadvantaged relative to the mainstream.
In México, Benito Juarez was a pure Zapotec, and served 5 terms between 1858 and 1872. Victoriano Huerta was fully Amerindian, and at least 50% Wixáritari, he was president in, I believe, 1913, after a weird coup. Juarez was responsible for the separation of church and state, slowly being undone by the last 2 presidents (who were elected after 60 years of one party rule, the first one (Fox) basing his campaign on the themes of hope and change, and the “we can do it” slogan). Amerindians constitute about 30% of the Mexican population, are disproportionately poor, discriminated against by the mestizo majority, and have a long history of oppression. If this does not qualify as a minority, Zapotecs are less than 2% of the population, and there are less than 50,000 Wi
