Posted on 11/26/2017 7:35:09 AM PST by drewh
Amid all the scrutiny that Malia Obama has been subjected to in her first months at Harvard University, nothing has attracted as much press attention as her being snapped by eager paparazzi kissing a white guy.
The guyidentified by enterprising journalists as 19-year-old Rory Farquharsonis a British-born Harvard sophomore. The kiss, outside last weeks Harvard-Yale football game, suggests that the 19-year-old former first daughter is boldly asserting her independence after eight sheltered years in the White House.
The families of presidents have always been the subject of tabloid fascination, but Malia Obama, like her father Barack Obama before her, inhabits an unprecedented position in Americas centuries-long race debate. Many, including other first daughters past and present, have argued quite reasonably that the press should leave Malia alone. Of course, thats unlikely to happen. Never before has such a high-profile young woman of color navigated her way through the Ivy League dating pool. Which is why its all the more intriguing that Obamas journeyat least for nowhas ended with a white guy.
Marriage rates overall are in precipitous decline across America, but this is especially true for black Americansonly 30% of black American adults were married in 2015, Pew researchers found. Black womenparticularly those with the most education like Obamaare faced with a limited pool if they seek to date within their race. Due to a host of societal conditionsfrom early death to mass incarcerationtwice as many black women attend college as black men.
Among all demographics, African American women are the least likely to date outside their racewith barely 12% marrying non-black spouses. The reasons behind this trend are as disturbing as they are depressing. For one thing, black women are Americas least-desired ethnic group by men of all races, according to ongoing research by dating site OK Cupid. On a community level, explained Stanford law professor Ralph Richard Banks in his book Is Marriage for White People?, black women often face a type of pressure to marry within the race that white simply women do not experience.
There is still enormous social pressure on black women to only marry black mento sustain the race and build strong black families, Banks told me in an interview in 2011. In short, no matter the personal cost, Banks said, black women are encouraged to marry down before they marry out.'
So far, Obamas kiss is been met with relatively little backlash. This decorum, however, is likely to fade if Obama continues to dateand ultimately marryoutside her race. One need only look to the vitriol heaped upon tennis star Serena Williams last winter when she revealed her engagement to Alex Ohanian, the white co-founder of Reddit whos now her husband (and daughters father). Williams announcement was met with messages of anger, betrayal and dismay across #blacktwitter. Williams may be rich, famous, and stratospherically accomplished, but for many black Americans her romantic decisions are not fully her own.
Like Williams, Obama cannot escape the optics of her new boyfriends whiteness. Whether we like it or not, Farquharsons race and classhis father is a CEO of an investment fund and he was the head boy at an expensive private school in the UKhave implications far beyond her rarefied milieu.
For the moment, at least, those implications are likely still years away. At just 19, Obamas long-term romantic trajectory is impossible to predict. What is certain is that the frustrating absence of black male peers means that nobody should be surprised if Obama chooses to dateor eventually marryout.
why is this even a topic in 2017?
My question is more profound: why would this guy be kissing that homely drink of water - race or no race.
“Farquharson was ... the head boy at an expensive private school in the UK”
Heh, heh, heh. Obama’s daughter might wind up marrying the “head boy”? That would be just too rich!
Grow up. What has she done to deserve anonymous internet trolls attacking her?
Since her daddy Barak is white I don’t see what the big deal is. That fact that he pretends to be black doesn’t make it so.
Who she decides to snuggle with is of no concern.
The fact that she is probably taking one of N Harvard courses (where N is rapidly growing number) that contains the intellectual demands of a 1935 third grade course is of great concern.
Sad for her and sad for a formerly respected university.
Obamas daughter might wind up marrying the head boy? That would be just too rich!
= = = = = = = = = =
Well, some say the daughter looks for a ‘father figure’ when it comes from marriage.
From one ‘head boy’ to another ‘head boy’.
NOW, Being a former Sailor, I take the term ‘head boy’ a tad different from the average dude.
SORRY....I just couldn’t ‘resist’...
Barack is half white, and 100% gay.
Lol...the transition from “kissed” to 30% of black adults being married was so lightening fast I felt I missed some heavy action in between paragraphs.
money and notoriety
WTF!...LIE!
Where's that happening? REAL Black women don't marry nobody.
good for Serena she married up! :)
The fact that Mooch pretends to be a woman doesn't make it so.
She’s a homely, over-privileged, pot-smoking brat raised by a typically angry mama and an America-hating weakling. Anything else you’d care to know?
Lyndon Johnson made sure of that one. The Great Society destroyed the citites singlehandedly by taking away work ethic...
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