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The First Black President?
Campus Report ^ | February 21, 2008 | Emmanuel Opati

Posted on 02/21/2008 9:02:16 AM PST by bs9021

The First Black President?

by: Emmanuel Opati, February 21, 2008

The rise of Barack Obama on the national political scene has inevitably rejuvenated a debate as to who was the first black President. Author Toni Morrison argued that, figuratively, Bill Clinton was the first black President; Lucas Morel believes otherwise.

Lucas Morel, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Politics at Washington and Lee University, says that “to the contrary of Toni Morrison, Abraham Lincoln not William Jefferson Clinton was our first black President and deserves to be studied and celebrated as an integral contributor to black progress in American History.” “No American regardless of color did more to establish human equality as the basis for fulfilling America’s promise than Lincoln,” he argued.

Discussing the topic The Problem of Black History: Race, Memory, and the American Creed at the Heritage Foundation last week, Morel said that “Black history month has mixed blessings because it emphasizes race and in so doing it obscures what makes the achievements of Black Americans worth remembering and celebrating, not race but the accomplishment of individual human beings.”

However, there are questions as to whether calling it African-American History month alienates African-Americans from the rest of American History. It is worth noting that there are many African-Americans worth remembering in American History, but “what is Black History in the context of American History? What is its relationship to American History and to America more generally? Rather than being divisive and separatist, could the narrative of Black History be uniting?” asked Matthew Spalding, Director, B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at Heritage Foundation....

(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: 1stmuslimprez; americanvalues; barackhusseinobama; blackhistorymonth; chebama; multiculturalism; nobama; race
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To: Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh

What about black people in Canada??


21 posted on 02/21/2008 10:48:45 AM PST by ozzymandus
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To: ozzymandus

Afrinooks?


22 posted on 02/21/2008 10:51:24 AM PST by Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh
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To: Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh

Frostycans?


23 posted on 02/21/2008 10:54:06 AM PST by ozzymandus
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To: bs9021

I still believe that at the ight time the Clinton slimew machine will knock Obama off.

Hillary has planned and schemed,[I had better let it go with that] for too long to be President to go out this easy.

I believe that the November ballot for President will read John Mc Cain, Republican and Hillary Roddam Clinton, Democrat.


24 posted on 02/21/2008 11:01:52 AM PST by sport
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To: LWalk18

Have you ever been to Egypt? There are lots of arabs that look very similar to Obama, that are not negroes.


25 posted on 02/21/2008 12:21:39 PM PST by zipper ( Suicide voting is the quickest way to send the whole country to Hell.)
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To: beer

26 posted on 02/21/2008 12:22:29 PM PST by evets (beer)
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To: zipper
Have you ever been to Egypt? There are lots of arabs that look very similar to Obama, that are not negroes.

I am not talking about Obama, who is half white, but his father, who looks very black based on every picture I have seen. That blog's contention is that Obama has only 1/16 Sub-Saharan black or Negroid DNA, thus his father has 1/8 Sub-Saharan black DNA with the remainder being "Arab" or Caucazoid. Having seen his picture, I really doubt that his the case.

27 posted on 02/21/2008 12:28:43 PM PST by LWalk18
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To: LWalk18
I have seen that picture, and it does look like he is a black African. But having traveled around Africa, including Egypt, I am not going to conclude that his father was majority Negro.

The picture I think we are both referring to is here, just below Obama's picture:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=431908&in_page_id=1770

That said, it would be nice if the blogger would make his research available, instead of just citing it:

Need proof? Research the Kenyan records for yourself. You will find that his father was officially classified as "Arab African" by the Kenyan government.

As Mr. Lamb says, if Obama is not Negro, and is actually minority Arab-African, and his ancestors were Arab slave traders, then his whole persona is called into question, and his identity with Blacks will be seen as a cynical ploy, with his identity as composite as the characters in his books.

28 posted on 02/21/2008 5:08:43 PM PST by zipper ( Suicide voting is the quickest way to send the whole country to Hell.)
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To: bs9021

I do not mind a blackman or woman as president. But I do not want a black president I want an American president.


29 posted on 03/07/2008 11:39:59 AM PST by Americanexpat
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To: Americanexpat

My view exactly! Check out Obama’s “people” section at http://www.barackobama.com/index.php#

He lists

- Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders
- African Americans
- Americans Abroad
- Environmentalists
- First Americans
- Generation Obama
- Kids
- Labor
- Latinos
- LGBT
- People of Faith
- Students
- Veterans
- Women

Wouldn’t this be better termed, “special interests”?


30 posted on 03/07/2008 12:14:40 PM PST by bs9021 (facts speak loudly)
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