Firstly, Obama and his family symbolise the ability to transcend narrow racial categorisations in order to unite people for the common good. They challenge the patriarchal systems headed by white alpha-males and show non-white people, especially in North and South America and Europe, the possibilities of transcending the life-paths that have been written for them and a future where they cannot be excluded or bypassed. It may no longer be necessary for Afro-centrics to unearth the contributions that black people have made to Western society and to modernity – they can no longer be written out of history.