After U.S. Breakthrough, Europe Looks in Mirror - NYTimes.com

After U.S. Breakthrough, Europe Looks in Mirror - NYTimes.com:

"After U.S. Breakthrough, Europe Looks in Mirror
By STEVEN ERLANGER

PARIS — In the general European euphoria over the election of Barack Obama, there is the beginning of self-reflection about Europe’s own troubles with racial integration. Many are asking if there could be a French, British, German or Italian Obama, and everyone knows the answer is no, not anytime soon.

It is risky to make racial comparisons between America and Europe, given all the historical and cultural differences. But race had long been one reason that Europeans, harking back to the days when famous American blacks like Josephine Baker and James Baldwin found solace in France, looked down on the United States, even as Europe developed postcolonial racial problems of its own."