Job Discussion Forums

[johnslat]

Dear Stephen,
That's undoubtedly right - there have probably been at least five or six (if not more), but I suppose it all depends on how "fairly recent" is defined.
"African-American Presidents

"Note: Several presidents were allegedly of mixed European and African ancestry, which by U.S. reckoning would designate them as African-American. See The Five Negro Presidents by J.A. Rogers and Six Black Presidents: Black Blood, White Masks by Auset Bakhufu.
Thomas Jefferson
Andrew Jackson
Abraham Lincoln
Warren Harding
Dwight Eisenhower"

But Obama was certainly the first who ran for the office as an indisputably
Black man.
Regards,
John
P.S. Dwight Eisenhower? Now that's a mind-boggler.

[Sheikh N Bake]

SJ, there you go again about US executions. According to figures I saw, China executed 1100 people last year. Mostly political prisoners, no doubt. Saudi Arabia was #2 or 3 with about 500. The US executed 37 last year, in a country with 300 million residents. About half of the 37 were, of course, in Texas. Only some were actually electrocuted, if any. As for those who were serial killers--the kind who torture young women and children to death and go back to their dumping grounds and have sex with the severed heads--can you stay on you high Eurohorse and tell us society should pay $40,000 a year for such monsters to live? What if they should escape? (One of the worst ones did, twice, and killed more people including a 12-year-old.) Good riddance. In short, there is no comparison between executions in the US and KSA.

Cleo, always with the gratuitously condescending vibes. How many Black heads of state (or minorities of any kind) are in western Europe? And how many European countries can count 9% blacks (or other minorities) among at least the lower houses of parliament? You should be in awe. Actually I am in awe of the French system which essentially allows no access to meaningful jobs or higher education to Muslim minorities.

Besides, Charles de Gaulle airport really S UCKS, even FAR worse than Heathrow and JFK, but of course that belongs on some travel thread. Just thought I'd vent and throw it in. Thank the stars for Zurich and Frankfurt...and Houston airports.