"the worst thing that could happen now...

...would be for us to go back to sleep; to allow the cool poise of Obama’s prose to lull us into slumber like the cool on the underside of the pillow. For in the light of day, when fully awake, it becomes impossible not to see the incompleteness of the task so far.

So let us begin."

Tim Wise, from "Good and Now Back to Work: Avoiding Both Cynicism and Overconfidence in the Age of Obama" at Racialicious, yesterday morning.

And from Brian Walsh, questions of empire:

"So here’s the question. How will an Obama presidency break with the imperial pretense of not just the Bush/Reagan dynasty, but with the imperial pretense of America herself. Can you be a President of the United States of America and not be imperial? Or to put the question in terms of this website, can Obama remix the American empire?"

- from "Barack Obama: A Post-Imperial Presidency?", at Empire Remixed (Thanks to Eliacin for passing on!)

and courtesy of Steve, via the Guardian Online:

"Much as Africans are inebriated by the idea of an Obama triumph, the greater challenge is to think profoundly about the lesson of this fascinating episode in American history. We need a new direction in politics far more than the Americans do." - Africans Drunk on Obama, C. Don Adinuba