Is it unreasonable to assume that a black man from Kenya would list his race as African?
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Yes, in 1961 it is. That’s why it’s an anachronism.
Negro was not a derogatory term in 1961. Black people called themselves Negroes, as did most everyone on the planet in some form or other (”Negro” in almost all Romance languages means “black”).
As it stands, if that document is authentic, Obama is the only human being on Earth who has a 1961 Hawaiian birth certificate with “African” listed as a racial designation.
If you have proof otherwise, feel free to show me and I’ll eat my words. I’ll even give you from 1964 back to 1959.
You are correct. In 1961 it was an insult to call them black, as explained to me by a black employee in Texas. They preferred to be called Negro.
Except Obama Sr. was not an American black. Negro was an American term.
In 1961 the Federal government told its computer coders that if a birth certificate had the parents race as colored or black or brown or Afro-American that they should code it as Negro if the parent was born in the United States. But if the parent was not born in the United States, the coder should code it as other non-white.
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Why would the Federal government make that distinction?
“Black people called themselves Negroes, as did most everyone on the planet in some form or other (”Negro” in almost all Romance languages means “black”).”
Except in Kenya where blacks were referred to as Africans. As shown by the government’s census instructions.
Isntvthe original document we saw spelled afriKan. Which was used along the Dutch spice route (Kenya included )