I read that thread. All the black babies I've seen were obviously Black, and not just going by skin pigmentation. Most were not as dark complected as they would later become, but there was no mistaking their ancestry. Same with most "Mexican", and by that I really mean Mestizo, babies.
All babies are cute, but they don't all look alike regardless of their parent's ethnicity.
BTW, we see a lot of mixed race babies around here, mostly with one or the other parent or both being military. One of those whose mother used to sing in a band with my coworker has a German father. The mother is the "black" one. Also around 20 years ago, my sister in law had two of them a couple of years apart. So I think I know what black and mixed babies generally look like. Of course virtually all *African Americans" are mixed to one degree or another, but BHO Sr was just "African", and while not as dark as my Nigerian acquaintance from college who could be described as being obsidian, pretty dark compared to most African-Americans. I think the hospital staff would have known.
Besides, under the theory that the posted Certification of Live Birth is authentic, *someone* told the hospital staff, since BHO Sr's race is shown as "African". That would have been on the original Certificate of Live Birth, which the doctor would have signed. So he would have known even if BHO came out as pale as my older grandaughter (or my daughters or my wife), which seems unlikely. :)
Thanks for your comments... Another little thought is that in HI there were (and are) so many “mixtures” that a hapa haole baby is nothing unusual. I can’t remember reading about the “African” designation - think there may have been discussion about whether this was any kind of standard? I think the tentative conclusion was that race would have been “Negro”, not “African” which is not really an ethnic deignation at all. It’s a bit suspect, unless someone can come up with another [authentic] COLB from that general era that says “African” on it.