Posted on 08/24/2004 4:38:09 PM PDT by Willie Green
CHICAGO — Some people, particularly those who are tone deaf to the ironies of life, have a problem with Barack Obama's race. They have a hard time deciding what it is.
Ever since the front-running candidate for the U.S. Senate from Illinois burst onto the national stage with a riveting keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, I've been hearing from readers who question why the media, including me, insist on referring to Obama as "black" or "African-American" when he is "really" biracial.
Are we trying to render his white Kansas mother irrelevant? No, I say, we're just recognizing that the realities of race have more to do with psychology, sociology and politics than actual science.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
... and Condoleeza Rice, and Thomas Sowell, and Walter Williams, and Alan Keyes, and Larry Elder, and Shelby Steele, and Star Parker, and Armstrong Williams, and ... you get the idea ...
The blood quantum of Barack Obama is not the question. "Not black enough" refers to the choice of ancestors. Obama's African ancestors chose the route of NOT being captured and sold as slaves, and in fact may have been the victorious tribe that managed to capture the neighboring tribesmen to be sold into slavery. These captured slaves were ultimately to be shipped to the New World, where they remained in bondage until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. To be "black" in America is to be able to claim descent from these slaves, and subjected to the scorn of the dominant Europeans who had occupied the North American continent. This scorn persisted, for decades after their manumission, which shaped and gave the characterization of "black".
So Obama's ancestors may in fact be the perpetrators of the involuntary servitude that befell the ancestors of the American "blacks". And they want Obama to represent them.
Stockholm Syndrome at work. The unenlightened masses still demand to remain loyal to their oppressors.
Barack Obama does business with the white overclass (repersented by the Democrat party hierarchy).
This was the most hilarious line in the article, referring to the decision by the "no affirmative action" party to draft Alan Keyes:
"That's OK. It is downright inspiring to see leaders of the Party of Lincoln in the Land of Lincoln stretching their big tent wide enough to include Maryland."
I like Alan Keyes, but Page is right.
i think it is the USG law that if you have one oz of back in you you are/can be called black. i hope i am wrong???
"It's downright inspiring to see leaders of the Party of Lincoln in the Land of Lincoln stretching their big tent wide enough to include Maryland."
One of the running jokes I've heard in Maryland is that the east side of Chicago is now Baltimore.
By the way, Keyes came out in favor of reparations: He IS certainly black (now). (Sarcasm)
I've always wondered that too! Is one drop of black blood so powerful? Why, if one half of parentage is to be chosen as an identifier, is it always the black side? Is it political or sociological?
I have bi-racial family members, and I consider them just that, BI- racial, as much white as they are black.
Obama is not "Black" OR "half-Black". He is half white, half Arab-Muslim. His father was an African Muslim (whose ties to a murderous dictatorship would be intensely probed were he a Republican). His grandfather's name was "Hussein". He looks Egyptian to me. Keyes is the only "Black" candidate in this race.
Clarence Page is just too smart to be a liberal. He needs to drop the pretense and come on over to our side. Sooner or later, we're gonna getcha, Clarence. Just do it. You'll be glad you did.
I am white and probably have no right to comment here, but since Obama is the whitest dude to run as a black, since Bill Clinton was declared to be America's first Black President, I feel everyone has a right and obligation to speak.
If a candidate is white-in all likelyhood, he is not black.
No way does Obama look white or anything else but black. If you saw him on the street without knowing who he is or anything about his background, you would see him as a black guy. I see black people (with two black parents, not biracial) that look whiter than him everyday, including members of my family.
You are very good sir. I salute you.
He looks East Indian to me. It's not just a matter of darkness or lightness, but of texture.
He sounds like he's been reading Nicholas Stix.
It is not to his advantage considering the ethos of the democratic party to embrace anything white,conservative or christian. The worst combination would be all three in the eyes of the American liberal.
Yep. I hear he has apologized, in the new edition of his autobiography, for slighhting his mother in the original version. I guess now it's safe for him to mention the white woman and her parents who raised him, after his black father deserted him at the age of two.
I don't think questioning his blackness is a winner- while he looks different from West African descended American blacks, he is still a black person.
As for the biracial thing- the word was practically unheard of until 10-20 years ago. Prior to that time, a person was seen as black by both blacks and whites. Mixed race persons, (or more accurately, mulattos) faced all the same slavery/ Jim Crow restrictions. Only in the last few years are more and more whites are accepting their mixed race relatives, while blacks in general always did. Thus, the one drop rule still lives.
If he has made such an apology, then I will say my opinion of him has gone from very low to tolerable.
Do not be so secure as to how accepting black people are of differences.
Today, the one-drop rule lives, because black people insist on it. My son is biracial, and anyone who tries telling me otherwise, is getting his racism shoved right back down his throat.
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