COMMENT | I won’t forget the scenes 12 years ago  when Barrack Obama (above) was sworn in as US President. It was so symbolic that a black man had risen to the top job in a nation whose initial rise was founded on the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans.

It was a watershed moment and I kept hearing the words of Martin Luther King - "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Yet, when I couldn’t sleep two nights ago as the rabble-rousing Donald Trump officially “handed over” the US presidency to Joe Biden, I reminded myself of the need for a reality check.

After all, Obama, for all his eloquence and ability to make us dream, was often stalemated by the Republican-dominated Congress. Worse still, it was clear that Trump’s election was a right-wing backlash and provided an outlet for more open expressions of racism and hate...