Asia's Race to Judgment By ZOHER ABDOOLCARIM Wednesday, Oct. 08, 2008

Early this year my wife and I watched Venus Williams, one of the world's finest tennis players, compete in Hong Kong. During the match several young men sitting near us kept referring in Cantonese to Williams as "black demon," as well as another unprintable epithet. They shut up when my wife, an American citizen who is ethnic Chinese, berated them for their racist language. (Williams, by the way, won the tournament.) What, I wonder today, would those men say about Barack Obama, who soon could be the U.S.'s first African-American President? Perhaps it's the memory of slavery, or the legacy of the civil rights movement, or the need to be politically correct, or just plain politeness, but most Americans, particularly whites, are relatively restrained in word and deed about race. Most Asians are uninhibited about it. Asia's vast ethnic diversity means we are forced to confront the very many real differences — cultural, political, economic — that exist among us. Sometimes those differences erupt in violence. At least half of the world's armed conflicts are in Asia, nearly all ethnic-based. But the bigger reason Asians do not focus on commonality is because their societies do not encourage it. In many countries, ethnic divisions are institutionalized, with strict laws governing what one race can and cannot do. In largely homogenous Japan, it's extremely difficult for a non-Japanese to become a citizen even if born there. In Malaysia, an affirmative-action program gives preference to Malays over the country's sizable Chinese and Indian populations in everything from university places to government contracts. In Pakistan, Punjabis, the dominant ethnic group, are favored for key positions in the powerful military and civil service. Government leaders argue that these kinds of measures help maintain harmony. Maybe so, but it is a superficial harmony that reinforces stereotypes and hinders the creation, in the long run, of genuine tolerance and understanding. Even Hong Kong, one of the world's worldliest cities (and where TIME has its Asian headquarters), can be astonishingly parochial. For instance, Hong Kong enacted antidiscrimination legislation only very recently. Before, it was perfectly legal for a landlord to deny renting an apartment to an otherwise qualified tenant simply because of his or her skin color. One of my colleagues, an Indian national who has lived in Hong Kong for more than two years, still gets stopped by police for no given reason and told to present his ID. When he complains, the cops merely shrug. In Asia, it is acceptable to be racist, or at least unapologetic about being so. In Asia, race is in your face. So when Asians look at Barack Obama, they see, above all else, a black man. And most are convinced, TIME correspondents around the region tell me, that Americans will not, in the end, choose an African-American as their leader — simply because it has never been done. That the President of the United States should be white is a truism, reckons a retired Hong Kong Chinese professional who's a friend. His assessment of Obama is devoid of a critical examination of his values and vision. It's enough, says my friend, that "Obama does not look presidential." How Obama looks will not, of course, determine how he would govern if elected. Because he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, and because he appears international in outlook, some Asians have high hopes for an Obama presidency. The thoughtful Malaysian commentator Karim Raslan warns, however, that Obama could prove disappointing to even those Asians who like him. "There's this idea that Obama will be a transformational figure, a leader of the world," says Karim. "But he's a Democrat, and Democrats have traditionally pushed protectionism and human rights, issues uncomfortable for Asia. Obama's key constituency is the U.S.; he will be the Commander in Chief, advancing American interests, not the world's." Yet the world has already gained from the Obama candidacy. In one sense, and one sense alone, his skin color does matter. In Asia (with the exception, perhaps, of India), it is virtually unthinkable that an individual from a minority could rise to become a serious national leader. Whatever we may think of the U.S., of its hardly stellar handling of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, of its lack of oversight, restraint and thrift over the financial meltdown, the fact that a Barack Obama can overcome the disadvantages associated with being black and have a shot at the highest office in the land speaks volumes about the possibility of hope in America — a possibility that cannot be entertained in the same way anywhere else. Even if Obama does not win, that's the lesson, and the example, America frames for all of us — whatever our race.