Posted on 07/08/2008 4:59:23 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Sen. Barack Obama is the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. So why is he "black"?
He is, to be accurate, biracial, equally black and white. Mr. Obama could choose to identify himself in a way similar to golfer Tiger Woods, who describes himself as "Cablinasian" a mix of his Caucasian, black and American Indian father and his Asian mother (although "Kensan" or "Kanyan" don't have the same ring).
Or Mr. Obama could label himself with obvious legitimacy as white - he was, after all, raised by his white mother and white grandparents after his father abandoned the family when he was 2 years old.
Yet he describes himself as black, and news organizations around the world have followed suit.
The Associated Press said June 3, when the Democratic candidate secured enough delegates to win the nomination, that the biracial senator is "the first African-American to lead a major party ticket" as he seeks to become "the nation's first black president."
But a debate over the topic of race has been raging since he entered the presidential race a year ago. Throughout the primary campaign, political pundits have addressed the question of whether Mr. Obama is "black enough." (A Google search of the candidate's name and the phrase pulls down 152,000 hits.)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
IE Ricans, Dominicans, and Afro-Brazilians.
Obama’s father is a Luo (ie black) NOT AN ARAB (semitic). Can we stop passing around this internet urban legend!
You see Barak Husseins problem is the use of race. He decided long ago to be a black man instead of a white man. He is after all 50% white and 50% black. His black father abandoned him and his mother when he was two years old. (Common fathering technique for black baby daddies.) Barak Hussein chose to align himself with his deadbeat black father instead of his white mother and white grandmother who raised him. Could it be that he has a lack of respect for women or maybe just white women. Or could it be that as a Muslim he shares their lack of respect for women. They consider women less valuable than livestock and show them no respect whatever. Tell us Barak which is it.
It's a full-time job setting folks straight on that score, isn't it? ...lol. You've been working overtime for a while now. That urban legend spread like wildfire.
Whatever, jerk.
Him calling himself black may have something to do with affirmative action. It would be interesting to know if he benefited from aa. If so, he should not have, being the child of an African and a white American.
When I lived in Virginia in the Sixties my best friend was one quarter Choctaw from Oklahoma. By the laws of the Commonwealth at the time, he was illegitimate being of mixed parentage.
Most if not all Southern states had the "one-sixteenth rule" that declared any person with more than one-sixteenth Negro or Indian parentage is considered "full Negro or full Indian." In our modern times the word Black is commonly accepted for Negro.
Obama presenting himself as Black can not in any fairness be held against him. It simply reflects a perception that is still commonly held by a great number of Americans.
This whole question is just inane falderal.
Because he is black.
Well, actually, he is not "black". He is Mulatto and he stands out like a sore thumb next to his black Kenyan relatives.
If his skin was "white" (Caucasian color), and if he still called himself black, you could legitimately ask your question. But suppose Obama, with his black skin, called himself white. Imagine how much flak he'd receive from blacks for dissing his black genes.
What is it about the U.S. that legitimate biracial terms such as "Mulatto" or "Mestizo" are totally verbotten?
Why must everybody in the U.S. be classified as either a glass of milk or a cup of black coffee while everybody pretends that there is no such thing as coffee with cream?
What is wrong with using the term "white" or "European American?" Why not categorize Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, to say nothing of Obama, as mulattos?
My fellow Americans are generally very smart in most relevant areas, but STUPID when it comes to "race." We like it simple and incorrect.
Growing up in Hawaii, he was a "Haole" just like his mother.
Of course! Down here we might say that he is cafe au lait.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Feds are already ahead of you.
If you can trace your ancestry back to the Dawes Rolls, you are legally Cherokee and the tribe, by treaty, must accept you.
If you can trace your ancestry back to the slave/freedman portion of the Rolls, you get a card from BIA saying you're of African Descent.
It is now nearly 200 years after that census.....
If you didn’t know a thing about Obama and saw him on the street, how would you describe him?
He’s black.
The unequivocal answer to that question is "Barack Obama". A major theme of the book is his repudiation of his White heritage and his embracing of all things Black, and figuring out what that meant as an adult.
Exactly so, and see my previous post.
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