Tam - Chongo poured over the border from Africa. ;-) On a banana boat. In the 1920's.

Mousethief - you're not even trying. His point is simply that many people are inclined to give Obama some extra support and some extra slack precisely because he is a Black man (and a very well spoken one), because it makes them feel good to do that....given the fact that they have spent most of their lives allied with and promoting the genuinely very good ideal of achieving racial equality in America. So they are inclined to overcompensate positively for a Black man in office in order to prove to themselves that they are living up to those ideals.

They are reinforcing their old psychological behaviour patterns, and giving themselves a pat on the back for being so "non-racist".

It IS a factor in their thinking, and it does influence them. It prejudices them favorably to support Obama. They give Obama MORE of a break than they would if he was White. They are, in this way, trying to compensate for the USA's past very bad record of slavery and racial discrimination. There are people who would do the same for a woman in office, merely because she was female.

It's counterbalanced, of course, by people who ARE prejudiced against Blacks or against the idea of a female president...those people will attack Obama because he's Black, and they will put down a female candidate because she's female.

In all of the above cases the people involved would be overcompensating and treating Obama (or a female president...or a gay president) quite differently than they would if he was your average regular "White guy" in office. That's what Akenaton was referring to, he was referring to (positive) prejudice based on racial profile as opposed to the much better publicized forms of negative prejudice based on racial profile. It cuts both ways. It's prejudice in both cases, because it's not a rational or unbiased judgement, it's a judgement based on old emotional habits of irrational favoritism or hostility. You're just being plain stubborn and obstinate if you can't see that that is Akenaton's real point.