Ethnically ambiguous

I found this interesting that according to this BBC link embedded in my title, the world now see the United States as 'progressive' on one hand in that we elected an African American President,.. and in the other hand state how he is not actually from 'slave' stock. Matts article says way more than that and puts it very well, a perspective I had not considered. Here is a section just about Barack:

Barack Obama's election is indeed an inspiration.

But we should not not forget that America's first black president is also half white.

He was raised by a white mother and white grandparents.

He thrived in the largely white ivory towers of Harvard and Columbia.

He is not the descendant of african slaves but the son of a Kenyan economist, who was educated at American universities.

So if Barack Obama is post-racial it is also because he is ethnically ambiguous enough for most Americans to feel comfortable with him.

In that sense too he is the Tiger Woods or Lewis Hamilton of American politics: cool, concentrated and ethnically mixed.

Remember, the biggest hurdle at the beginning of his campaign was not that he was black but that he was not black enough.

By Matt Frei BBC News, Washington

I think the bottom line should be one that makes you think, I know this one surprised me from the same article above:

The Middle East is lost for words that a man called Barack "Hussein" Obama can be at the helm of the Great Satan.