Obama offers hope to a whole generation

And this must apply especially to young people. It is just half a century since someone like Barack Obama would have had to ride in a separate place on the bus in the segregated south of the country he now leads.

We have, nevertheless, to be a little cautious in our celebrations and the very different role model Obama represents. He may epitomise the American Dream but young black people in the US still have a massively disproportionate probability of ending up in prison rather than in higher education. Their lives remain blighted by poverty and unequal opportunities. Racism is still rife; there was talk that significant chunks of the white working class who traditionally voted Democrat would turn against Obama, unable to entertain the thought of a black man in control.

And Obama is not a typical black man: he does not embody, directly, the legacy of slavery that is the case for the vast majority of African Americans. Yet his mixed-race inheritance - half Kenyan, half Kansas - is also highly significant: it is not so long ago that people of mixed race in both the movies and real life were unwanted pariahs who fitted nowhere.

So what are the messages that this event carries from across the pond? First, that with gritty determination, young people from minority ethnic backgrounds have more chance of success than ever before, despite persisting obstacles. Second, it is possible to overcome a tough past through self-education and development. Third - and we have known this for some time - there is now a great strength in mixed ethnic identities, provided that individuals perceive their dual heritage in a positive light. Fourth, as Martin Luther King so famously put it, it is arguably now possible to be judged less by the colour of one's skin and more by the content of one's character.

It was that character that provided Obama's trump card: in a country with rather specific political traditions, he stepped away from the beaten track to bolster his campaign with small donations from ordinary folk and through the creative use of the internet. In that respect, he bucked the rules. Finding a balanced path between conformity and innovation may in fact be Obama's lasting legacy for young people - black, white or other.

Howard Williamson is professor of European youth policy at the University of Glamorgan. Email howard.williamson@haymarket.com.