Obama's Presidency, American racism and foreign policy

I find it rather daunting that after centuries of racial turmoil in America, many mainstream politicians, religious leaders, and academics have yet to make critical connections between the brutal history of racism in this country and foreign policy impacting black and brown peoples of the world. Are we as Americans suffering from historical amnesia? Have we forgotten the genocide of Native Americans, the slave trade, Hiroshama and Nagisaki, segregation, lynching, and most recently the atrocities of a post-hurricane Katrinia dibocle? Obama presidency holds exciting possibilities precisely because he may bring sensitivities about race and the ways in which racial attitudes are infused in the formation of policies and practices. Even with the greatness of Abraham Lincoln, America has never experienced this kind of leadership. We do not yet know how Obama will engage policy with an awareness of race and racism. We do hope, that as an African American, with an African wife and African American children, he will bring to his leadership an awareness of how race has shaped the U.S. policy agenda. His pragmatic approach is very appealing and I think will be well received. It will also, perhaps, lead to new conversations about policies that are grounded not in white supremacist of nationalistic ideologies, but in sound thinking and wisdom.