OBAMA-DJANGO: Reflections on an Unshackled Presidency and the United States' Future

The trials and tribulations that Pres Barack Hussein Obama has faced from his detractors were recently summed up: It is hard not to believe they hate Obama because he is black. Before and after his first term they tried to prove he wasn't even an American. This was not an African American commenting, but Peter Bruce, the respected mainstream white former editor-in-chief of Business Day, South Africa's leading financial daily. If for the sake of scenario-spinning, one indulges an "Obama Unchained" scenario, there are several areas in domestic and foreign policy where one might hope to see a 2015 encore from Obama as he began regaining control in shaping his legacy toward the end of 2014. In the end, Quentin Tarantino's Django exacted the justice of vindication that was his due. But in the history of real life, the ongoing African American struggle that Obama wages beneath the radar of his broader national and international agenda, is an ongoing saga intimately caught up in the US never-ending identity search.