Redefining 'black':Obama spotlights the divide between American Blacks and African immigrants

LA Times Calendar Live ^ | 18 February 2007 | Louis Chude-Sokei

[shrinkermd]

ALTHOUGH NOT quite able to pass for white, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been able to pass for African American. He is biracial, but not white; black, but not African American; American but not African. What has entranced the country more than his somewhat vague policies is Obama's challenge to conventional racial and cultural categories.

Among African Americans, discussions about his racial identity typically vacillate between the ideologically charged options of "black" versus "not black enough" or between "black" and "black, but not like us."

But there is a third side to Obama — and also to the politics of racial passing in America.

The population of African immigrants in the United States is rapidly growing. Since 1990, about 50,000 Africans have come to the United States annually, more than in any of the peak years of the international slave trade, which was abolished in 1807. They add to the steady influx of black immigrants from other continents and the Caribbean, and those who have been in the United States for generations but who don't racially and culturally define themselves as African American...

[shrinkermd]

His appeal is to White women and others who wish to prove to themselves and others they are not "prejudiced." That is why he is so wildly popular on FaceBook and other Web Sites populated by young Whites. To them he is "Black" but he doesn't fit the usual stereotype of African-American.

[D.P.Roberts]

Biden got it right. His only "qualification" is the color of his skin. And he is acceptable to white democrats because he know how to behave himself around them.

[gedeon3]

Interesting article. Bottom line is that this is another pro-obama piece; luring non-blacks and African immigrants to vote for obama.

I will not buy it; obama is a far left wing Marxist.

[The Pack Knight]

He is biracial, but not white; black, but not African American; American but not African.

Maybe it's just my hangover, but that sentence gave me a real headache.

[ghost of nixon]

reading that article just made me stupider - what is it about liberals and race?

[dinasour]

"blackness" has not just defined one's skin color but has served as a code word for African American

No. Black is a code word for a melanin enhanced individual who serves dutifully on the liberal plantation.

If you meet the first criterion, but not the second, the "oh so racially sensitive" would be masters will throw oreo cookies at you.

[B4Ranch]

I see him as a Muslim, never to be trusted.

[sgtbono2002]

He is a political opportunist,who is using the blacks the same as Hillary and the rest of the liberal politicians do.

[JimRed]

The only way Obama could not be "black enough" would be to embrace conservative beliefs.

[S.Elaine]

I see him as a Muslim, never to be trusted.

Bingo..

I also see him as a traitor to his white family.. he used his grandfathers service to this country in a speech not long ago but conveniently forgot to mention that it was his white grandfather that served this country, not his african muslim grandfather.

[The Pack Knight]

No. Black is a code word for a melanin enhanced individual who serves dutifully on the liberal plantation.

I've become convinced that the Democratic party think blacks "owe" them for the Civil Rights movement, this despite the fact that it always enjoyed more support at the time from Republicans than Democrats. To a liberal, any black Republican is either a traitor to his race or too stupid to realize what's best for him. What's worse, any black man or woman who doesn't subscribe to the official ideology of victim-hood purveyed by race pimps *cough*, sorry, I mean "Civil Rights leaders", isn't really "black" at all, since evidently being successful and thinking for one's self is antithetical to "blackness". To me, this isn't "soft bigotry" at all, but every bit as serious as the brand perpetrated by the KKK, and infinitely more damaging to the prosperity and political relevance of black Americans. I have to believe that one day, this is going to backfire against the Democrats.

And another point, doesn't this whole debate over who is really an "African American" and who isn't point out the sheer idiocy of group identity politics? When a 12th generation American who happens to be the descendant of slaves is an "African American" while an naturalized citizen who is from Africa isn't, the term ceases to have any meaning.

[The Pack Knight]

I also see him as a traitor to his white family.. he used his grandfathers service to this country in a speech not long ago but conveniently forgot to mention that it was his white grandfather that served this country, not his african muslim grandfather.

I would imagine that would go without saying, considering one was American and one wasn't. You're actually saying it would have been better if he'd made sure to point out it was his white grandfather that served his country?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have enough reason not to vote for Obama without resorting to slurs on the man's ancestry. He may be a socialist, but he's a native-born citizen of the United States and therefore as American as you or me.

[S.Elaine]

You're actually saying it would have been better if he'd made sure to point out it was his white grandfather that served his country?

Obama is the one making his running a race thing.. why not make sure to point out that it was his white grandfather? How many that see him as a black man and not just as a democrat running for the nomination are actually going to think about it when he says 'my grandfather fought for/served this country'?

It would be better if HE didn't use race.

[P-40]

He is biracial, but not white; black, but not African American; American but not African.

Someone has been smoking pot on the job...

[Starwolf]

Obama is WHITE, at least as white as I, a Irish/English/German hybrid is. Raised by white family in Hawaii, which has no african americans to speak off, going to a very expensive (an liberal) K-12 prep school.

He is a white boy with a dark skin. No wonder Jackson, Sharpton, and the other race war pimps hate him.

[Garvin]

We should judge all people by the content of their character and be judged by the content of our character, by doing this it will eliminate all the second guessing.

[Crawdad]

So this guy thinks it's good he's not an African-American?

[syriacus]

When you listen to Barack Obama, as he pretends to care about those who are persecuted, you realize Obama is only capable of speaking in abstractions about American blacks who were "savaged" by whites.

Obama wouldn't break a fingernail, much less a sweat, in today's real world, to help flesh-and-blood Iraqis who were "savaged."

Neither would Obama stand up and speak out against the continuing dictatorship of an evil man, Saddam Hussein, who threatened people of other nations, as well as his own citizens.

Does Obama even realize that the Iraqi people who were tortured, raped, dismembered and murdered by Saddam are fellow human beings

[syriacus]

This question occurred to me, yesterday.

It's a tricky question, and I'm not sure where to find the answer.

The question would not have occurred to me if it weren't
1. for the recent discussions about reparations and
2. for (non-slave-descendant) Obama's ubiquitous talk about white Americans "savaging" black Americans.

Which "group" has a larger percentage of slave-owning, or slave-driving, ancestors?

Black Americans or White Americans?

[Vigilanteman]

Interesting perspective. But the fact of the matter is that Obama is a white liberal who happens to have had a black sperm donor. What else would you call I guy who disappeared when the kid was 2?

What else would you call a guy whose high school years were spend with rich white grandparents who sent him to a preppie school in Hawaii?

The only thing really different between Obama and any other love child of the 60's hippie mixed-racial-love-is-cool generation* is that his formative years were spent in Indonesia with a step-father who was a Muslim supremicist and a press corps that adores him because he is useful to their agenda.

* Note: I have nothing against mixed race marriages. I was born of one and am in one. I do have something against people taking trophy spouse of a different race just because it is trendy and they want to make a political statement or impress their friends. Such marriages, like Obama's parents, generally end in divorce once the novelty wears off.