This is a great article with great points. Among them:
"...The difference between now and then, of course, is the element of choice. Barack Obama does not remind Americans of the racial divide or of the chains that first created it. Instead, he points to an alternative history that Americans have never been able to achieve. "Symbolically, Obama's parentage is the founding couple that America never accepted," said Werner Sollors, who teaches African American literature at Harvard.
"Crouch is right: Obama does not remind us of this nation's original sin. But he does remind us of an opportunity that we as a nation are continually missing.
Last paragraph may be over the top depending on one's perspective; however, it is reached by reason not emotion. But living White Americans are not responsible for what others did 150 plus years ago; again, guilting White people has not and will not solve the problem. It even isn't race that makes for the Black underclass, it is the same values and behaviors that makes the White underclass of the UK its mirror image.
Are either of his parents from Africa?
If not, then he is an American.
That was easy.
if a white man born in South Africa becomes a U.S. citizen,does that make him an African-American?
for affimative action purposes?
He's a "Big-Eared American"
what do pelosi, kennedy, obama, clinton a, clinton b, gore etc. have in common?
there all the same skin color: radical left wing socialist liberals.
Another annoying politics-to-fashion speak analogy. Curtains, makeover, etc - blech!
As I mentioned before I have thought about this topic off and on for some time the following definitions have seemed to arise from the way the terms are used...
Negro - a race. A person like Obama with parents of different races is biracial. He/she is a Negro based on his/her genes.
African-American - A person whose social and cultural values and beliefs are based on the unique (but apparently still developing) amalgam of post-slavery African culture and values and the non-African American culture. Defined by how they live (diet, religion, dress, etc.). He/she is an African-American based on how they live.
Black - A political movement/vision started in the 1960's as a way of focusing voting power in order to achieve political/economic gain. Black-Power was a revolutionary concept that forced the American political leaders to address the needs of both Negroes and African-Americans. It appears to have devolved into a political spoils system with racist over tones similar, ironically, to the segregation system in the Southern states that it helped to end.
A better question...is Obama the new Muslim?
Obama spent "two years in a Muslim school, then two more in a Catholic school" in Jakarta. At age 10 he was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents so that he could attend the highly-regarded non-sectarian private Punahou School; he entered Punahou in fifth grade and went through high school, graduating in 1979.
The guy can't even say "Axt'd", so how he be black?
Don't know, don't care. He's further proof that anybody can be manufactured into a DemonRat politician. With people like Obama, Carol Mosely Braun, and Slow-Joe Biden being appointed as our "betters", no wonder the country has the problems that it does.
Halle Berry is not black either, but managed to be a black winner of the Oscar.
Turning their backs on white mothers who raise them to be successful seems to be a common practice among non-blacks who want recognition as black achievers.
As a black woman, I see Obama as a black or African-American (although I am not a fan of that term). Saying that he is not really black because his ancestors were not American slaves is like saying that someone isn't a real white American unless their ancestors came here on the Mayflower. It doesn't make sense. If he looks black, then he is black. Now, he doesn't have the same heritage as most black people in this country, but that is a different issue.
I belive Robert KKK Byrd made it clear.
His popularity stems from the fact he is hybrid white. He is from nonslave African stock. He is Eddie Murphy in Coming To America.......
Oh, please. In the places where "cultures" are still intact in Africa, the standards of living are deplorable. Where they've become "modernized", it's not much better.
Our African-American population is West African, Obama's father is East African. He was raised by his white mother. He has neither ethnic nor cultural kinship with our African-American population.
When you work with people sometimes you find the most important information is what is not said rather than what is said.
In Barack's instance this all has to do with his mother. Anyone ever seen a picture of her? Anyone ever heard of an interview with her? Is she even alive? What was her history and why did the Grandparents enter the picture?
If that isn't enough how about the grandparents who allegedly raised him. Who are they? Pictures? Biographies?
This man has achieved celebrity status and may be nominated for POTUS and simple, basic information is not only unknown but never mentioned. If the MSM won't do it, we need to find someone who will.
FWIW
Does color mean George Hamilton can reclassify himself?