First thing’s first, read the Washington Post article entitled Obama’s Not Black, where the first line reads “he is also half white.”
Ok look. I love multiculturalism as much as the next person, but Obama is as Black as the ace of spades sitting at the bottom of a cup of coffee.
Black is not defined by “were my parents slaves…” Black is a global definition to define not only those of African descent (not counting the way way back historic descent of everyone coming from Africa… or the Middle East, depending on who you ask), but Black in America is particularly defined by the shared and collective experience that such people have. Sure not everyone experiences racism… directly. But even if you are mixed and came out looking white or asian or hispanic, you know personally of Blackness in your life and at the very least you had to confront it on a personal level.
A close friend of mine summarizes the situation best:
Yeah, we’re all well aware of the fact that Barack Obama is of mixed ancestry but, so are a majority of so-called “African-Americans” in this country. I am tired of people trying to steal our moment of pride and advancement with their semantics. Being black is not about you’re genotypic make-up (because most of us are comprised of very different ones). The binding force is the brown skin that gives us a certain outlook on society, and sometimes, to our detriment, a certain perspective of ourselves as we relate to it. As DuBois said, it is a double-consciousness that I believe we have yet to escape, no matter how “diverse” our backgrounds are.
So, Washington Post, I’m sorry, BUT, man oh man!! You’re holding a pocket for this one.
4 responses so far ↓
Hank Tekle // December 16, 2008 at 9:42 am |
Technically, the author of that article is right!
Laurie // December 16, 2008 at 11:37 am |
i got into an argument about this with one of our marines saturday. he is biracial and calls himself black. he says my kids will be “black” but yeah somehow the other biracial girl we work with is not black enough to him. when Christian & my children are born, they will be BOTH black and white (not one or the other) and i hope theyll be proud of both and claim both equally.
Curious // December 16, 2008 at 9:30 pm |
Honestly, if he’d never said he had a white mother, I doubt we’d even be having this conversation. He just looks black to me, in person and on TV. Quite frankly, I think he only brought up his white half and wrote 2 memoirs to put white people at ease. He’s the same shade of light brown as most descendants of slaves and slave masters. Nothing special to us
voodoowoman // January 2, 2009 at 7:51 am |
He’s about as black as Tiger Woods.
I would wager to guess that if “mainstream” Black America were to encounter him on the street they’d say he was trying to be white because of the way he dresses and talks; however, he’s a hero because he’s the first “black” president? It seems a little hypocritical to me.
Also, it perpetuates the notion that in America if you’re not white you’re black and isn’t that part of his “change” agenda? Seriously, if race relations are something he’s going to work on then don’t feed the hype that has kept the tension going.
Also, what kind of message does it send to bi-racial children when even the president denies what he is?