my opinion on the "first black president"

I am so sick of people referring to Obama as the first "black" president
so does this mean all mixed people are considered black?
or do people just not pay attention, he is in fact, half white
and was raised by his white family
i am by NO means predjudice in any way, i have bi-racial family members, i just don't understand why people are ignoring the fact that he IS WHITE too!!!!!!!!!!!

Ah yes, the "one drop" rule. Yes--anyone with discernible black heritage is considered to be black by a majority of citizens in America. This has been a habit aligned with white racists. Curiously enough, African-Americans seem to have embraced it in large numbers, though many hold to the claim that being half African-American just isn't "black enough" to be part of the club.

This reminds me of the outcry heard from a few sectors of the black community when a white cast member played Obama on SNL. They were ostensibly unaware of his white mother, or chose to write her out of the equation that day.

Originally posted by christykirby
I am so sick of people referring to Obama as the first "black" president
so does this mean all mixed people are considered black?
or do people just not pay attention, he is in fact, half white
and was raised by his white family
i am by NO means predjudice in any way, i have bi-racial family members, i just don't understand why people are ignoring the fact that he IS WHITE too!!!!!!!!!!!

I am equally sick of your point of view.

Would he be considered black before the civil rights movement?

Case closed.

When you see a white house you call it white and a red car is red even though the colors may be an off shade.

Therefore, if you were to see Obama walking down the street and didn't know who he was, you would say that he is ______________.

If you saw a picture of him in a yearbook and once again knew nothing about him, you would say that he is __________________.

I don't know about you but my answer is black.

I understand what you are saying about the mixed blood, but we call people and things by the color we see.

Obama is the first Black President.

Obama says he's black enough because he has a hard time catching a cab in Manhattan. I suppose he's referring to a racial stereotype where black males are more suspect to be violent with the cab drivers than other members of society.



Of course he laughs after his racial joke...Ha ha! We're all laughing with you Obama. Now to answer your question. "Is Obama black enough?" The answer is (proven by above video) that he's black enough to make racial jokes and still be a politician much like black musicians can use the "N Word" in their songs and still get a Grammy. So yes. He is black enough. You should remove any doubt in your mind.

Originally posted by Yoda411
I am equally sick of your point of view.

Why? You have a problem with white genes?

Would he be considered black before the civil rights movement?

I'm sure you would be better to answer this than I.

Case closed.

Hardly.

Crazy talk.

I'm half Irish and half Italian. My last name ends in a vowel and I have dark hair/skin.

Am I Italian or Irish...I'm confused...what am I?

edit

BTW, I love Guinness and fresh mozzarella.

[edit on 15-12-2008 by distortion9]

Originally posted by distortion9
Crazy talk.

I'm half Irish and half Italian. My last name ends in a vowel and I have dark hair/skin.

Am I Italian or Irish...I'm confused...what am I?

edit

BTW, I love Guinness and fresh mozzarella.

[edit on 15-12-2008 by distortion9]

Italrish?.................lol..

Originally posted by intrepid

Originally posted by Yoda411
I am equally sick of your point of view.

Why? You have a problem with white genes?

Would he be considered black before the civil rights movement?

I'm sure you would be better to answer this than I.

Case closed.

Hardly.

You must not understand the psychology behind racism. Before the civil rights movement he would be considered black. I guess I am more qualified to answer that question than you. It was an easy question.

Originally posted by Yoda411
You must not understand the psychology behind racism. Before the civil rights movement he would be considered black. I guess I am more qualified to answer that question than you. It was an easy question.

Not for a Canadian. We didn't/don't have the same history on this matter. I WILL say though that HERE is where the Underground Railroad ended.

We could do better by our aboriginal peoples though.

Regardless of his color We need to give him a chance.He seems to be working on the many problems even before taking office,which Ive never seen any President do.Usually it takes months before a President get his act together,Obama on the other hand seems prepared to "hit the ground runnin" from day one!

reply to post by intrepid

The word "black" has been coined by European whites to define the African-American minority group.

For an American growing up in a very much African-American neighborhood and public education system I can tell you that at least in the view of society, being half-black is still considered black. In the prison system if you ask a mixed person if he is black or white, he is going to say black. If you ask a Nazi in the prison system if a mixed person is black or white, he is going to say black. If you ask a racist if a mixed person is black or white, he is going to also say black.

This is why it was a huge milestone in America to elect president Obama. Half-black is equally as black under the view of the narrow-minded racists, it is equally as black in the view of other African Americans, and it is equally as black in the view of RACISTS. Racists are obviously the most important part of this conversation because the reason it is even significant and mentioned that he is the first black president is because blacks (no matter the percentage) were a ruthlessly abused minority group for centuries.

It would be equally important if a Native American descent were elected president no matter the percentage. It would also be equally important that a person of Asian descent were elected to the white house (no matter the percentage). In either case it would be stated that "the first native american was elected", or obviously "the first asian-american was elected to the white house".

He has black skin,not white skin...therefore using this as evidence i can say with confidence he is black.Case closed

Originally posted by Yoda411
The word "black" has been coined by European whites to define the African-American minority group.

For an American growing up in a very much African-American neighborhood and public education system I can tell you that at least in the view of society, being half-black is still considered black. In the prison system if you ask a mixed person if he is black or white, he is going to say black. If you ask a Nazi in the prison system if a mixed person is black or white, he is going to say black. If you ask a racist if a mixed person is black or white, he is going to also say black.

Thank you for the explanation. Well here's to hoping that we can get past this limp BS in the near future and realize that we all share this planet. Maybe we should lean more towards what binds us, not what separates us.

reply to post by Solomons


What about light skinned Latinos? Does that make them Caucasian?

Originally posted by christykirby
I am so sick of people referring to Obama as the first "black" president

I will ask the same thing Intrepid asked Yoda... Why? Why does it bother you so? How does that affect you?

so does this mean all mixed people are considered black?

I think it depends how they self-identify. Again. Why? Is there a big need to categorize everyone neatly under their appropriate labels? What if they're 3/4 black? Should we make sure to call them "quad-racial"?

i just don't understand why people are ignoring the fact that he IS WHITE too!!!!!!!!!!!

What makes you think people are ignoring that? I, for one am fully aware that his mother was white. It just doesn't matter.

But yes, he's our first black president.

So what would yall consider Mariah Carey or Derek Jeter, I know some mixed people who have blonde hair and blue eyes and are lighter than some whites I know.

It all depends on the genes, There was this couple who had twins one looked white and the other blackyou would not have known they both were mixed.

Lots of mixed black and white children actually look like there native american or from the pacific islands actually.

You could have two people are considered white and the only relative that was black was like from 50 generations ago turn around and have a child that looks black and the same could be said for people with dark skin having children that look completely Aryan.

I remeber one documentary I was looking at in a sociology class about some year in the old days they were doing a census and had a group of people from the mountains virginia/west virginia and could not determine whether they were black or white. They put that they couldnt tell.



Also to add most black americans are mixed with white, native american, sub sarhain african, northern african/berber and many other different racial groups within africa. Also most blacks from Dominican Republic, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Panama etc all call themselves hispanic or latino and not black.

While Barack is probably just White and Kenyan most blacks in the usa or actually north or south america are mixed so Barack is actually more black than any black america excluding people whom immigrated in the past 40 years.

and if anyone wants to get techical everybody from southern europe and northern africa (mediterrian) are probably mixed also.


[edit on 15-12-2008 by kvaniu]

We need to come up with a better way for describing people for the matter, there are more than just black, native american, white and oriental races we need to get rid of the notation that

white = from europe
black = from africa
oriental = from asia

because thats not always the case.

since there are native whites in asia and northern africa, people with dark skin from asia, india and oceania and people whom pass as oriental from oceania

Originally posted by kvaniu
We need to come up with a better way for describing people for the matter,

Why? Why do we need to say what race a person is? If a room was full of white people and you wanted to describe one of them, you'd find other ways to describe him than his race. A curly-haired fat guy with a blue shirt and a dark beard. Whatever. If you're confused about someone's race, then it probably shouldn't be used as a descriptor.

My whole point is that we don't need to categorize people by their race. We're moving toward a time when it won't be important and we'll be talking about more important things. I hope.

This is what I like about the races mixing together. At some point, it's going to become moot.