Is Obama black? It depends on who - and when - you ask. For some of us, the heralding of Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States seems a rather uncontroversial claim. ... The bulk of the people protesting against references to Obama as a black man, however, grant that he is "part" black (by way of his father), but assert that because he also has a white mother it is not "accurate" to call him black. ... For us, being black and mixed-race are not mutually exclusive. We have learned to live with the contradictions....