Obama's Race Discussed

WIBW-TV / The Associated Press ^ | December 13, 2008

[2ndDivisionVet]

A perplexing new chapter is unfolding in Barack Obama's racial saga: Many people insist that "the first black president" is actually not black.

Debate over whether to call this son of a white Kansan and a black Kenyan biracial, African-American, mixed-race, half-and-half, multiracial — or, in Obama's own words, a "mutt" — has reached a crescendo since Obama's election shattered assumptions about race.

Obama has said, "I identify as African-American — that's how I'm treated and that's how I'm viewed. I'm proud of it." In other words, the world gave Obama no choice but to be black, and he was happy to oblige.

But the world has changed since the young Obama found his place in it.

Intermarriage and the decline of racism are dissolving ancient definitions. The candidate Obama, in achieving what many thought impossible, was treated differently from previous black generations. And many white and mixed-race people now view President-elect Obama as something other than black.

So what now for racial categories born of a time when those from far-off lands were property rather than people, or enemy instead of family?

"They're falling apart," said Marty Favor, a Dartmouth professor of African and African-American studies and author of the book "Authentic Blackness."

"In 1903, W.E.B. DuBois said the question of the 20th century is the question of the color line, which is a simplistic black-white thing," said Favor, who is biracial. "This is the moment in the 21st century when we're stepping across that."

Rebecca Walker, a 38-year-old writer with light brown skin who is of Russian, African, Irish, Scottish and Native American descent, said she used to identify herself as "human," which upset people of all backgrounds.

[2ndDivisionVet]

We are all multi-racial if you go back far enough. This race nonsense should be put away as a relic of an earlier time, and should NOT be asked on the census.

[saganite]

IIRC it was the blacks who initially said the Obama wasn’t black because he hadn’t been a part of the movement.

[Mr_Moonlight]

she used to identify herself as "human," which upset people of all backgrounds.

Similarly, way back in school when I was asked "what nationality are you?", my deadpan reply was always: "American"

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Let’s ask Tiger Woods what race 0bama is. That would be entertaining.

[TheThinker]

What we don't get to escape white guilt even though we are suffering through putting everthing we cherish in danger by accepting this knuckle-headed mulatto as our president?And I've got nothing against those of mixed race. I just don't believe those without extra pigmentation deserve less consideration than the rest.

[Cicero]

Well, they played the race card to get him elected, so now I’d say we’re stuck with it.

“Human”? Yes. But that’s not the plank he ran on. “Mutt”? No, only Obama is permitted to use that term. “Black”? Well, that’s the official, politically correct, designated description. Or, more properly, African-American, if you don’t mind coughing up an eight-syllable adjectival phrase every time you refer to him.

[Jeff Gordon]

Some people have too much time on their hands.

[Paladin2]

0be’s not from da ‘hood.

[billhilly]

“IIRC it was the blacks who initially said the Obama wasn’t black because he hadn’t been a part of the movement.”

The race hustlers are not at all ready to plan for the day when racial divisiveness ends. The race hustle bubble, should it burst, would have a devastating effect on some black millionaires.

[FelixFelicis]

People can debate this all day and all night if they want to, but (gasp) I agree with Obama on this one. Whatever his ethnic breakdown, presence or absence of slave blood, etc., Barack Obama would appear black to most people who saw him walking down the street. I little doubt that he’s been treated as a black man all his life - for all the good and bad that implies. If he wants to call himself the first black president, I have no quarrel with that. It’s when he starts discussing healthcare that I have a problem....

[Deetes]

Good idea . Oh he’s muslim anyway ;-)

[TonyStark]

IIRC it was the blacks who initially said the Obama wasn’t black because he hadn’t been a part of the movement.

I thought it was because Joe Biden noted that he was good looking, clean and could speak proper English. Basically, that he wasn't Al Sharpton.

[montag813]

Obama sounds like Dave Chapelle’s “white guy” caricature. He is whiter than McCain.

[Condor51]

Uh ...how about mulatto.
By definition that's what he actually is.

[freeangel]

Face it. Obama sucked them all into the big circus tent by living the dream of P.T. Barnum(I think) “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

[FocusNexus]

Obama’s true colors are RED ( commie) and GREEN (extreme enviro-wacko)

[dbacks]

“The race hustlers are not at all ready to plan for the day when racial divisiveness ends. “

They will never let it end. If everybody had mulatto coloration, they would require everyone be tattooed with percentages so those with >50% anglo/white could be denegrated.

[Pontiac]

Rebecca Walker, a 38-year-old writer with light brown skin who is of Russian, African, Irish, Scottish and Native American descent, said she used to identify herself as "human," which upset people of all backgrounds. So she went back to multiracial or biracial, "but only because there has yet to be a way of breaking through the need to racially identify and be identified by the culture at large."

Because too many Americans have a vested financial interest in maintaining the status quo of racial tension.

Government funds are allotted to states in accordance with data collected in the census.

Coveted places in prestigious law and medical schools are reserved to minorities.

College scholarships are dolled out to minorities.

Political power is generated from easily inflamed racial animosity caused by imaginary transgressions. How can this country ever get past racial identity politics when so much effort is put forward to maintain or advance racial identity politics by those who gain power and / or money from its existence?

[1Bopper]

Unfortunately I have heard the “N” word more
since November 4th than any other time in my
life.
It may be something that will take
another 200 years to get rid of.

[PISANO]

We are all multi-racial if you go back far enough. This race nonsense should be put away as a relic of an earlier time, and should NOT be asked on the census.

Should be but won't. There is still a lot of mileage to be gained by racial identity politics and sadly it won't end anytime soon.

Look for studies to be done that say even though a Black has been elected to the highest office in the land we are STILL a racist nation!!

[JavaJumpy]

“Let’s ask Tiger Woods what race 0bama is. That would be entertaining.”

Tiger Woods says ‘multiracial’:

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3695226

[elpadre]

“...it was the blacks who initially said the Obama wasn’t black because he hadn’t been a part of the movement.”

And, Obama is not a descendant of a slave. In fact it has been said his tribe actually captured other Africans and sold them into slavery.

[Da Coyote]

Race schmace!!

I’m afraid of two things: his mentality (or lack thereof), and his philosophy (or lack thereof).

There are plenty of african-americans who I’d vote for.

The Obamaloon is not one of them.

[Pontiac]

How can this country ever get past racial identity politics when so much effort is put forward to maintain or advance racial identity politics by those who gain power and / or money from its existence?

Jeez how could I forget?

Congressional districts are drawn to guarantee that a racial minority candidate will win a seat in the US House of Representatives.

There is just no way that racial politics is ever going away. There is too much at stake for those who’s wealth and power depends on its continued existence.

[Viking2002]

I just use the term, 'Maggot'. It's generic yet inclusive enough to cover the entire racial spectrum when dealing with collectivist filth.

[Albion Wilde]

This race nonsense should be put away as a relic of an earlier time, and should NOT be asked on the census.

I think there should be a new category: "U.S. Octavian." To qualify, all eight of one's great-grandparents would be born in the United States. Although some of my forebearers were Native Americans and some arrived in the 1600s, I would not qualify on all eight; but my offspring would.

[Grampa Dave]

The Obama Oreo!

Naah, you ain't Black! You be the Oreo Metro Woosie with big ugly flip flops!

[Albion Wilde]

Obama’s true colors are RED ( commie) and GREEN (extreme enviro-wacko)

Mix them together and they make brown.

[Grampa Dave]

Maybe a more important question for Zero is:

Whose is your Daddy!

[A_Former_Democrat]

Let’s discuss his citizenship instead.

That’s far more important.

[YHAOS]

"We are all multi-racial if you go back far enough."

I don't know how accurate your remark is, but I certainly don't think we should be attempting to determine racial identity by standards that would have been applied by NAZIs or by the KKK.

[Random Access]

He be Marxist-American.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Don't the anthropologists and geneticists say that we are all descended from “Lucy” and African hominid from several million years ago? They claim that Homo Sapiens Sapiens came out of Africa. Doesn't that make us ALL African-Americans?

[hinckley buzzard]

I little doubt that he’s been treated as a black man all his life

He grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii. What do you think it meant to be "a black man" in those places? I say precious little. In prep school he became a hothouse afffirmative action orchid and started to get "treated like a black man" for the first time, with preferential admission to prestigious colleges.

[buccaneer81]

Unfortunately I have heard the “N” word more since November 4th than any other time in my life.

From blacks or whites?

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

I say if it’s “Mutt” he wants, then Mutt he gets.

Baraq the Mutt.

Kinda rolls of the tongue, wouldn’t you say?

[hecht]

His “black” half is east African Luo which is as dissimilar from the west African Bantu's that became slaves as Japanese are to Vietnamese.
In fact if he can call himself African American, Vietnamese Americans should apply for internment camp reparations.

[FelixFelicis]

Good of you to selectively quote my comment. I said, “I little doubt he’s been treated as a black man all his life - for all the good and bad that implies.” In other words, it was probably an advantage at least as often as it was a disadvantage. I’m just saying that because the average person he encountered in life probably perceived him as black, I can understand that that’s how he’d see himself. Everything else is just hair-splitting.

[tessalu]

Obama has always known that his father is Kenyan, and there has never been any question about that. Obama is Kenyan-American! American slaves may not have known exactly where they were from

[tessalu]

Obama has always known that his father is Kenyan, and there has never been any question about that. Obama is Kenyan-American! American slaves may not have known exactly where they were from

[ckilmer]

Here is Gov (commerce secretary elect)Bill Richardson saying in Spanish that Obama is an "immigrant." (So he understands understands "immigrant" issues.)The context suggests that by "immigrant" bill richardson means "illegal immigrant"



Here in plain English is the Kenyan Ambassador saying that Obama is born in Kenya.

[bkwells]

...and the decline of racism...

Really?? I bet Sharpton and Jesse disagree!

[truth_seeker]

“Because too many Americans have a vested financial interest in maintaining the status quo of racial tension.”

I am not getting any financial benefit.

Probably because I’m part “Dumb Swede.” Half-cast. Swede is probably the smart side, too.

[Ancient Drive]

He’s a mutt! He said it himself!

[YHAOS]

” Don't the anthropologists and geneticists say that we are all descended from “Lucy” and African hominid from several million years ago? They claim that Homo Sapiens Sapiens came out of Africa. Doesn't that make us ALL African-Americans?”

I’m not an anthropologist, so don’t count on me to either confirm or deny, but I think that it’s anything but settled who our distant cousins are, or from whence, exactly, they came. There remains, it seems, room for dispute. And, I think you’re talking apples and oranges if you try to make any close connections between “Lucy” and modern Man. If there be any connection at all, it is separated by more than 61 thousand intervening generations, and countless migrations out of, and back into, the continent.

If you’re suggesting that we all share a common humanity, then I’ll drink to that.

[Nowhere Man]

People can debate this all day and all night if they want to, but (gasp) I agree with Obama on this one. Whatever his ethnic breakdown, presence or absence of slave blood, etc., Barack Obama would appear black to most people who saw him walking down the street. I little doubt that he’s been treated as a black man all his life - for all the good and bad that implies. If he wants to call himself the first black president, I have no quarrel with that. It’s when he starts discussing healthcare that I have a problem....

That's basically my take on this too. Some sources say his father was 3/4ths Arab and 1/4th Black. It doesn't look like that from photos I've seen of him but then again genetics is a funny and inexact science at times. I know throughout history, Arab traders made it as far as South Africa, Zanzibar and of course Kenya. Obama does display an Arabic trait of being very maladroit, tall and thin if you will, much like the Arab Osama bin Ladin does. So basically if that is the case, Obama is half White, 3/8ths Arab and 1/8 Black, or if you use the old term of the South prior to the Civil War, an "octoroon." If I never saw him before and you showed me a picture of him, I would say, yes, he is Black. Many other people would say the same thing, so yes, in a defacto sense, he is our first "Black President." Many times, perception can be reality.

Myself, his color doesn't mean much to me as President. I still stand by my vote in the 2000 PA Presidential primaries where Alan Keyes would have been better than G.W. Bush and in 2006, I chose Lynn Swann for our governor.

My main problem with Obama is that he will take this country in a direction that I, many others here and elsewhere do not wish to go. Obama could be named Barry Harry Olgethorpe, a WASP, if he had the same political views I would still oppose him.

[Larry Lucido]

Who cares about his race? I care about his communism.