Does color mean George Hamilton can reclassify himself?
Posted on 12/17/2006 9:02:23 AM PST by shrinkermd
The possible presidential candidacy of the biracial senator has sparked an illuminating debate on race.
WE KNOW this: Barack Obama is a rising star. He's a powerful speaker and a gifted writer. He is the only African American serving in the U.S. Senate. But is he black?
That's what New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch asked last month, and his answer was decidedly "no." No, Crouch wasn't just employing the old "blacker than thou" canard. Nor was he concerned with the fact that Obama was raised by his white mother. Rather, he was treating blackness not just as a racial (shared biology) identity but as an ethnic (shared historical experience) one. And isn't that what the switch of terms from "black" to "African American" was all about?
Think back to the late 1980s, when the Rev. Jesse Jackson became the most prominent black to call for the adoption of the term African American. "Just as we were called colored, but were not that," he said, "and then Negro, but not that, to be called black is just as baseless…. Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some land base, some historical cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of maturity." The problem, of course, is that most black Americans are descendants of slaves who had their African cultural heritage brutally stripped from them.
What Crouch is arguing is that what the majority of black Americans share is their ancestors' experience as human chattel, brought to these shores in the grips of chains. Slavery and segregation not only forged a rigid racial line between black and white but created a shared ethnic experience. For Crouch, the fact that Obama's father — whom Obama met only once — was a black Kenyan...
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
That one gets my vote
I believe Tiger's mother is Thai. I believe his father met her while serving in the Air Force in Thailand.
Does color mean George Hamilton can reclassify himself?
Yes, his father.
True with every woman who has ever lived. (Note the clarification added in bold to your quote above)
OK. Stop the torture already. She looks good in leather. So what else is new?
One of Tiger's grandparents was white (father's side).
Ask Kramer?? JK
I firmly believe that the 'Kramer' actor was on drugs went he went on that rant. Either that or he's mentally ill. No one else could be that stupid.
I beg to differ.
You're right. That's cruel and unusual punishment.
That's the usual, typical, subtle race-card play: "we don't allow people to CHOOSE who they may or may not associate, based on personal preference". Likewise, if I am the business owner and wish to create a clientele-base that I decide is in my BUSINESS best interest, why do you support the thought Police mandating my free choice? (The same has been done to smokers, where the politically correct smoke Nazi's have no problem singling out a targeted GROUP, to make THEMSELVES comfortable). Because smokers represent the small minority (as do blacks in society), their interests are trodden upon freely by those who "know better", whereas you can't do that if race is involved....
He has the typical blonde trophy wife of a rich athlete, which is not addressed by anyone, either. Amazingly, NO ONE mentions how many rich certain race celebrities CHOOSE white (usually blonde) wives, as this is NOT something we should note. The whole race-bating ignoring of the obvious is a sad statement by the afraid-to-admit-it, politically correct, "trendy" crowd.
His mother is Thai, moreso she is Chinese-Thai, and his father a half-black, one-quarter American Indian, one-quarter white), as reported by Woods himself.
'But just "who I am" remained contested ground. According to Time magazine, Woods' coming out as a Cablinasian caused "a mini-racial firestorm ... Woods' remarks infuriated many African Americans who ... see him as a traitor ... Some blacks saw Woods' assertion of a multiracial identity as a sellout that could touch off an epidemic of 'passing.'
Adding fuel to the fire stirred up by Woods' comments are their political implications. Congress is considering adding a multiracial category to the 2000 census, and supporters of the controversial new category immediately seized upon Woods' statement as evidence that the old categories -- black, white, Asian and Pacific Islander, native American and "other" -- are inadequate. Civil rights groups like the NAACP, who are bitterly opposed to adding the multiracial category because they fear it will lead to a loss of black political and economic clout, are not likely to enjoy the spectacle of Woods becoming a poster child for multiracialism.'
1. He is very smart. You underestimate him, or his intelligence, at your peril. He is not an "affirmative-action" entrant to almost anything. I don't know his college record, but it seems to have been good. At Harvard Law, we do know:
a. He made harvard Law review, which is not done by AA -- it has been criticized for having very few blacks
b. He graduated magna cum laude, which DEFINITELY is done only by grades, and which is not given out for green stamps -- it means the top 10% of the class or better. His becoming president of the law review is another sign, though it is an elective office among the memebrs, it is elected by some of the most cut-throat folks you will ever find, who would not give up a coveted spot for a-a reasons -- as shown by the fact that he is the first black pres of law review, after many years of A-A in admissions
2. I think the hunt for secret Muslim roots just won't fly. He returned to Hawaii in 5th grade, and was basically raised by his grandparents, attending a very good (though quite large, and thus not super-snooty ) private school there. The roots of a father who left him at age 2, or an Indonesian stepfather that his mother married when he was a small child (and was apparently an oil executive) isn't going to convince many people that there is a "Muslim gene" this is implanted in him.
rather, he is a fairly conventional "liberal" Chrisitan. His Mom seems to have been a typical 60s "free-thinker" type, who did marry both his father and step father, which is pretty "bourgeois-minded" for her time and place.
So, my theme is simply -- take him on for his politics, but don't think he is either a "phony" or simply a media creation. One further note -- when a rising state senator, he did have the guts (as well as ambition, I grant), to take on the loathsome Congressman Bobby Rush in the Democratic primary (he lost), when it didn't seem a very smart thing to do.
I had a friend who was half Egyptian (Coptic). I urged her to put herself down as African American. Egypt is in Africa, after all, and the AfroCentrists are always bragging about the accomplishment of the Egyptians, taking it for their own
ping
"... Does anyone know his religious preference?"
I've read his own comments where he claims to be Christian, that there are many paths to God, and that his mother is a hard core secular humanist.
Based on this, I've come to the conclusion he is a follower of the Christian-in-name-only New Age One World religion.
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