B
baxter
Guest
(Dec. 14) - A perplexing new chapter is unfolding in Barack Obama's
racial saga: Many people insist that "the first black president" is
actually not black.
Debate over whether to call this son of a white Kansan and a black
Kenyan biracial, African-American, mixed-race, half-and-half,
multiracial ? or, in Obama's own words, a "mutt" ? has reached a
crescendo since Obama's election shattered assumptions about race.
Obama has said, "I identify as African-American ? that's how I'm
treated and that's how I'm viewed. I'm proud of it." In other words,
the world gave Obama no choice but to be black, and he was happy to
oblige.
But the world has changed since the young Obama found his place in it.
Intermarriage and the decline of racism are dissolving ancient
definitions. The candidate Obama, in achieving what many thought
impossible, was treated differently from previous black generations.
And many white and mixed-race people now view President-elect Obama as
something other than black.
So what now for racial categories born of a time when those from far-
off lands were property rather than people, or enemy instead of
family?
"They're falling apart," said Marty Favor, a Dartmouth professor of
African and African-American studies and author of the book "Authentic
Blackness."
"In 1903, W.E.B. DuBois said the question of the 20th century is the
question of the color line, which is a simplistic black-white thing,"
said Favor, who is biracial. "This is the moment in the 21st century
when we're stepping across that."
Rebecca Walker, a 38-year-old writer with light brown skin who is of
Russian, African, Irish, Scottish and Native American descent, said
she used to identify herself as "human," which upset people of all
backgrounds. So she went back to multiracial or biracial, "but only
because there has yet to be a way of breaking through the need to
racially identify and be identified by the culture at large."
"Of course Obama is black. And he's not black, too," Walker said.
"He's white, and he's not white, too. Obama is whatever people project
onto him ... he's a lot of things, and neither of them necessarily
exclude the other."
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i'm not sure what the big issue is. remember in 1998, when tom beck
was president?? he was black. i had considered he did a marvelous job
devising the lottery idea to put a million people in underground
shelters when that comet was gonna hit the earth. it's not the color
of skin that evaluates the man, but the greater good which is carried
out by the president of the united states of america. richard nixon
wasn't a wonderful president by any means, and he was black. see my
point?? one good president and one bad president. both black. it's not
the skin color, but the man which comes from within.
- bax
racial saga: Many people insist that "the first black president" is
actually not black.
Debate over whether to call this son of a white Kansan and a black
Kenyan biracial, African-American, mixed-race, half-and-half,
multiracial ? or, in Obama's own words, a "mutt" ? has reached a
crescendo since Obama's election shattered assumptions about race.
Obama has said, "I identify as African-American ? that's how I'm
treated and that's how I'm viewed. I'm proud of it." In other words,
the world gave Obama no choice but to be black, and he was happy to
oblige.
But the world has changed since the young Obama found his place in it.
Intermarriage and the decline of racism are dissolving ancient
definitions. The candidate Obama, in achieving what many thought
impossible, was treated differently from previous black generations.
And many white and mixed-race people now view President-elect Obama as
something other than black.
So what now for racial categories born of a time when those from far-
off lands were property rather than people, or enemy instead of
family?
"They're falling apart," said Marty Favor, a Dartmouth professor of
African and African-American studies and author of the book "Authentic
Blackness."
"In 1903, W.E.B. DuBois said the question of the 20th century is the
question of the color line, which is a simplistic black-white thing,"
said Favor, who is biracial. "This is the moment in the 21st century
when we're stepping across that."
Rebecca Walker, a 38-year-old writer with light brown skin who is of
Russian, African, Irish, Scottish and Native American descent, said
she used to identify herself as "human," which upset people of all
backgrounds. So she went back to multiracial or biracial, "but only
because there has yet to be a way of breaking through the need to
racially identify and be identified by the culture at large."
"Of course Obama is black. And he's not black, too," Walker said.
"He's white, and he's not white, too. Obama is whatever people project
onto him ... he's a lot of things, and neither of them necessarily
exclude the other."
----------->
i'm not sure what the big issue is. remember in 1998, when tom beck
was president?? he was black. i had considered he did a marvelous job
devising the lottery idea to put a million people in underground
shelters when that comet was gonna hit the earth. it's not the color
of skin that evaluates the man, but the greater good which is carried
out by the president of the united states of america. richard nixon
wasn't a wonderful president by any means, and he was black. see my
point?? one good president and one bad president. both black. it's not
the skin color, but the man which comes from within.
- bax