What Barack Obama achieved through the power of his mind, Coleman Silky Silk did through a lie. The hero of Philip Roth's The Human Stain was blessed with a skin colour so light that it was easy for him to pretend that "he wasn't a nigger". He made people believe he was a Jew instead and went on to become an eminent classics professor. But what the fictional Silk and the very real Obama had in common in their formative years were good educators.

It was Silk's boxing instructor who told him how to take on an opponent, to never be afraid and more importantly not disclose his origins unless he had to. That was how Silk dealt with his country's Negrophobia. Barack Obama's skin colour didn't leave any chance for him to lie about his roots, maybe he wouldn't have anyway, but like Silk, the American president is also the product of a liberal education system. And good teachers.