We are living in a more and more globalized world and achieving, and maintaining, positive relations between different races is now perhaps more important than ever before. The Oxford English Dictionary defines race relations as “relations between members or communities of different races within one country,” while race is, according to the Free Dictionary, “a local, geographic, or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics,” or “a group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution,” such as, for example, the French race. Those are, however, very broad definitions and useful, more or less, only for academic or legal purposes, because when we speak of race relations in everyday life it is usually most closely associated with the discrimination of one race against another.

One of the most discussed subjects in terms of race relations has always been White and Black America. For a long time African Americans were considered second-class citizens in the US and their struggle to gain equality was difficult to say the least. However, with the election of the first African American president in its history, the US is finally at the point of shutting the door to its past discriminatory practices and poor race relations. A new leaf has been turned and perhaps the question of equality between the two races is now finally resolved.

Throughout history there has been much discrimination on the basis of race in practically all parts of the world, though the most notable perpetrators have usually been members of the Caucasian race. The atrocities committed by the Germans led by Adolf Hitler during World War II served as a turning point in the way the race issue was viewed and discussed in international circles, as it ultimately led to the prohibition of discrimination based on race as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10th 1948. According to the UDHR, everyone “without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status” is entitled to enjoy fundamental human rights, one of which is, of course, equality. This important document embodies the vision for a better world in the future, and although it took over half a century from its inception to an African American President of the United States an important dream and goal was thus finally realized.

With the election of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president of the United States a de facto, or real life, equality of the African Americans and Caucasian Americans has finally been achieved. Barack Obama’s victory against John McCain in the 2008 US Presidential Elections clearly shows that it is political plans, and not skin color that today most influences voters in their decision. Because sixty years ago an African American would not sit in the White House even if he was guaranteed to know how to make this world perfect.