In other countries it would be acceptable for a person of Barack’s color to claim that they are “white.”
In the USA it’s “cool” to be black so everyone with even a little black in their physical characteristics claims that they are BLACK her in the USA. Most whites in the USA view it the same, a little black is all black.
I have traveled the Caribbean and Africa. Barack Obama is in no case a “black man”. Barack is a guy that wants to be a “black guy”.