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Is Obama the new 'black'? (Is He Really An African-American?)
LA Times ^ | 17 December 2006 | Gregory Rodgriguez

Posted on 12/17/2006 9:02:23 AM PST by shrinkermd

The possible presidential candidacy of the biracial senator has sparked an illuminating debate on race.

WE KNOW this: Barack Obama is a rising star. He's a powerful speaker and a gifted writer. He is the only African American serving in the U.S. Senate. But is he black?

That's what New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch asked last month, and his answer was decidedly "no." No, Crouch wasn't just employing the old "blacker than thou" canard. Nor was he concerned with the fact that Obama was raised by his white mother. Rather, he was treating blackness not just as a racial (shared biology) identity but as an ethnic (shared historical experience) one. And isn't that what the switch of terms from "black" to "African American" was all about?

Think back to the late 1980s, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson became the most prominent black to call for the adoption of the term African American. "Just as we were called colored, but were not that," he said, "and then Negro, but not that, to be called black is just as baseless…. Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of maturity." The problem, of course, is that most black Americans are descendants of slaves who had their African cultural heritage brutally stripped from them.

What Crouch is arguing is that what the majority of black Americans share is their ancestors' experience as human chattel, brought to these shores in the grips of chains. Slavery and segregation not only forged a rigid racial line between black and white but created a shared ethnic experience. For Crouch, the fact that Obama's father — whom Obama met only once — was a black Kenyan...

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: bhobama; bisexual; gayamerican; iraqosama; metrosexual; prezcandidate; race
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To: CheyennePress

I don't know; she's not too bad looking, don't you think? Of course, in her chosen profession looks don't matter.


41 posted on 12/17/2006 9:55:31 AM PST by elhombrelibre (A sober Jimmy Carter says what Mel Gibson would only say in a very drunken rant.)
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To: CheyennePress

Maybe you need testosterone therapy.


42 posted on 12/17/2006 9:56:32 AM PST by Thumper1960 (Unleash the Dogs of War as a Minority, or perish as a party.)
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To: LWalk18

I never understood the obsession with the abundance of melanin in determining ones "Blackness". I sure hope, and wish, the issue had logical value.


43 posted on 12/17/2006 10:00:33 AM PST by Thumper1960 (Unleash the Dogs of War as a Minority, or perish as a party.)
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To: Xenalyte

Are either of his parents from Africa?

If not, then he is an American.

That was easy.



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His father is from Kenya. His mother is a white American. He is truly American-African, and the inverse of what the racial terms Black American, Negro, and Afro American define.


44 posted on 12/17/2006 10:01:11 AM PST by photodawg
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To: elhombrelibre

She's very attractive; no doubt about it. Look at the shape of her body. Not a fan of short hair, but short hair doesn't make her body any less curvy.


45 posted on 12/17/2006 10:02:20 AM PST by jdm
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To: ValerieUSA
"Turning their backs on white mothers who raise them to be successful seems to be a common practice among non-blacks who want recognition as black achievers"

Hmmm.... Like Tiger Woods? (you know: the golfer with the Swedish blonde wife)

46 posted on 12/17/2006 10:02:29 AM PST by traditional1
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To: elhombrelibre
Mixed heritage has it's huge disadvantages. No doubt Obama has suffered much the same as this woman has as a result of her having a black father and white mother. Let's get past these things and accept people just for who they are.
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Amen to that my brother. Hey, do you have that girl's number?
47 posted on 12/17/2006 10:03:08 AM PST by photodawg
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To: alloysteel

Not at all, chief. Not only the fact that he was born in America (accidentally or not, I could not say). Having an American parent entitles one to apply for American citizenship.


48 posted on 12/17/2006 10:03:40 AM PST by ketelone
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To: elhombrelibre
"Mixed heritage has it's huge disadvantages. No doubt Obama has suffered much the same as this woman has as a result of her having a black father and white mother. Let's get past these things and accept people just for who they are."

I agree with your last sentence, but the first part is sarcasm, I hope?

For the record, Halle Berry belongs to the following female 'race' (the only one that matters, actually):

HOT.

UBER-HOT.

"Jelly-knees" HOT.

"Bubbling Brown Sugar HOT."

49 posted on 12/17/2006 10:06:42 AM PST by Al Simmons
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To: ValerieUSA

"Turning their backs on white mothers who raise them to be successful seems to be a common practice among non-blacks who want recognition as black achievers."

The old "which box you gonna check?" syndrome.


50 posted on 12/17/2006 10:07:18 AM PST by L98Fiero (The media is a self-licking ice-cream cone)
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To: AmishDude

Then he is in fact African-American.

See? I said it was easy.


51 posted on 12/17/2006 10:07:35 AM PST by Xenalyte (Anything is possible when you don't understand how anything happens.)
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To: CheyennePress
"Never got the Halle Berry obsession. I just don't see it."

Haven't been to the Optometrist to update the old prescription the last decade, have we?

52 posted on 12/17/2006 10:08:13 AM PST by Al Simmons
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To: elhombrelibre

In that picture we see Berry (as 'Storm') even HOTTER because her hair is LONG (not because its white).


53 posted on 12/17/2006 10:10:32 AM PST by Al Simmons
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To: Sender
If they were from Africa and immigrate to the U.S. they would have said the following....

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen<\em>

In that regard, there is no acceptable use of the term "African-American"

54 posted on 12/17/2006 10:10:38 AM PST by nitzy (America is a nation not an economy)
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To: shrinkermd
most black Americans are descendants of slaves who had their African cultural heritage brutally stripped from them.

Oh, please. In the places where "cultures" are still intact in Africa, the standards of living are deplorable. Where they've become "modernized", it's not much better.

55 posted on 12/17/2006 10:12:39 AM PST by edpc (The pen is mightier than the sword......until you fight someone.)
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To: Xenalyte

He is equally Kansan-American, it would seem.


56 posted on 12/17/2006 10:13:23 AM PST by AmishDude (I coined "Senator Ass" to describe Jim Webb. He may have already used it as a character in a novel.)
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To: traditional1
"Hmmm.... Like Tiger Woods? (you know: the golfer with the Swedish blonde wife)"

Woods has in the past jokingly called himself "Cablinasian" because, if you go to the grandparents generation, he has at least one white grandparent too.

I have NEVER heard him play the race card in any way shape or form. Yes, he complained about the way his father had been treated at 'whites only' golf courses decades ago. That's legit criticism. But asides from that, I can't recall him ever playing the 'card'.He is as purely American and nothing but as anyone can be.

And he says that his wife is even more competitive than he is. (Hard to believe).

57 posted on 12/17/2006 10:14:00 AM PST by Al Simmons
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To: jdm
I think she is too. I was being sarcastic. I have only a couple of small problems with Halle. I think she should have turned down some of the roles she's had, and I think she should embrace both her heritages. It's certainly an interesting comment on our times that there is said to be so much prejudice, yet to get the most mileage out of who she is she claims to be black and hence the first black female Oscar winner. In my book, she's mixed, beautiful, and the skin color is not a real issue. I'm pretty sure most people in the US agree.
58 posted on 12/17/2006 10:14:24 AM PST by elhombrelibre (A sober Jimmy Carter says what Mel Gibson would only say in a very drunken rant.)
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To: shrinkermd

Our African-American population is West African, Obama's father is East African. He was raised by his white mother. He has neither ethnic nor cultural kinship with our African-American population.


59 posted on 12/17/2006 10:14:28 AM PST by Plutarch
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To: elhombrelibre


Can you repeat what you said? I missed it.
60 posted on 12/17/2006 10:15:10 AM PST by do the dhue (How come the Demorats have not fixed Iraq yet? They're inept!! Vote 'em out!!)
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