They think Obama is African, and not African-American, and thus he doesn’t have “the anger towards white folks” that apparently all African-Americans have.

Obama’s place slightly outside the normal dynamics of American racial identity is one of the fascinating aspects of this election that historians will no doubt discuss at length. But I’m not sure I completely trust people’s rationalisations of their own decisions.

It’s hard to portray Obama as an angry black man because he just doesn’t seem very angry. His composure has been one of the most striking things about him from the beginning. If he had the same personality but was from Alabama, perhaps your friend’s relatives would have found some other way of articulating why it was safe, this time, to vote for this particular black man.

Incidentally, a friend of mine has recently returned from working in Nairobi, and apparently, they’re very excited there about Obama. And from their point of view he’s not just half-Kenyan; he’s also Luo. I bet you never expected to have a president with a stake in East African tribal politics.