Just curious/Obama

[GPK]

why is he labled as black?

[Mike]

Originally Posted by GPK

why is he labled as black?

I kind of agree with you here, I know what you're getting at. But, look at him and you'll have to admit, he looks like a black guy(in this country they're really brown, aren't they?)

Now, he is truly an African-American because his father was African and his mother was American. In this sense, a white South African coming here and having a child with a white woman,well the child would be an African-American wouldn't he?

I disagree with the labeling of the 99% of black people in this country being referred to a African-American just because ancient ancestors descended from Africa. My great great grandparents came from Ireland and Poland. Am I a Euro-American? Should we change all those ethnic choices on all the informational sheets we fill out from grade school on up?

And, yeah, I am a tad offended by having to check box "WHITE" when other ethnic backgrounds have choices like Hispanic, Native American Indian, etc

Let's just have it consistent across the board. If I have to choose "WHITE", then let's just list the other choices as "YELLOW",
"BROWN","BLUE-BLACK",and whatever else the best employees of Crayola Crayons come up with

[GPK]

Originally Posted by DaHoss9698

I don't get it.

His father was black and his mother was white. Doesn't that make him both? All of my bi-racial friends don't identify themselves as one or the other, but as both. How would he be received if he was labled as white?

I'm not trying to stir up trouble, but just looking for intelligent (except from MDF )conversation and debate.

[Mike]

Here's some good reading.

A Ugandan article that asks why he is referred to as black:
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/657981

And a Wikipedia entry on "black people":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people

[Mike]

And by the way, Obama's Irish like me:
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/657981

[GPK]

I'm not saying that he has shunned his white heritage, but let's just say that he chose to have himself identified as white instead of black. Would he have been received and embraced the same way in the black community?

[timmgirvan]

Originally Posted by GPK

I'm not saying that he has shunned his white heritage, but let's just say that he chose to have himself identified as white instead of black. Would he have been received and embraced the same way in the black community?

I give you the case of Jerry Rivers...a wannabe journalist who changed his name to Geraldo Rivera! Barry went the same way. He'd have been just another person looking for his 15 minutes!

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by GPK

I'm not saying that he has shunned his white heritage, but let's just say that he chose to have himself identified as white instead of black. Would he have been received and embraced the same way in the black community?

No I dont think he would have. If he claimed to identify himself as "white" I think many would consider him a sell out.

[GPK]

Originally Posted by Mike

Here's some good reading.

A Ugandan article that asks why he is referred to as black:
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/657981

And a Wikipedia entry on "black people":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people

Mike, do you think that he would have been percieved as this same great agent for "change" had he choosen to identify himself differently?

[GPK]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

No I dont think he would have. If he claimed to identify himself as "white" I think many would consider him a sell out.

Dala...in your opinion, had some tired ole white bread democrat career politician run on the platform of "Change" and "Yes We Can", do you think the majority of Americans would have rolled their eyes and thought "here we go again"?

[King Glorious]

I don't want to get too far into the subject but remember, the law used to say that that if a person had 1/8th black in them, they were considered black. Their skin color could be white as snow but if there was 1/8th black present, it was a black person.

My grandfather was born in Louisiana in 1905. Growing up, he was easily the darkest member of his family. He was basically an outcast for one reason......because he was so dark. During that time, black people desired to be as light as they could. They wanted to have the wavy hair. They wanted to do anything possible to be able to pass for white....or to pass as anything other than black. By the way, my grandfather was lighter than Obama is.

Basically, throughout the history of black people in America, it's always been considered a desire to be light in skin color. Even today, I know people that specifically will date only white people in hopes of having really light skinned babies. My best friend and I used to really go at it over this. He'd say "I'm already dark as hell (he was) and if I have a baby with a black girl, my baby will have no chance in this world. As much as I hated to admit that, and I would argue it with him, inside, I knew there was some truth to what he was saying. We, as a nation, are making a lot of progress. But the job is not done with Obama being elected as president. There is still a lot of work to do as there are still a lot of racial issues that need to be dealt with.

Obama is considered a black man because he's got color. That's the simple truth. That's the way it is with most people of mixed races. They are almost always referred to as black people. Look at Tiger Woods. Halle Berry. Mariah Carey. The list goes on and on. Tiger is an interesting one because he goes out of his way to seemingly not identify himself as just a black person but he embraces his total background. There are a lot of black people that are really disappointed in him for that, saying he's embarrassed to say he's black. I'm not one of them. I think he's totally right to say he's just as much black as anything else and to be identified by all of his ethnicity. I see Obama doing that same thing. I get tired of black people calling other people of color sellouts simply because they don't do "all things black." I look forward to the day when it's not even an issue anymore and we don't worry whether a man is black, white, green, or red. In the end, we are all just people. But until that day comes, when you are brown, and you aren't Hispanic, you are considered black.

By the way, on applications, I will not check African-American because I was born in Tennessee, my parents were born in America, my grandparents were born in America, their parents were born in America. I am American.

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by GPK

Dala...in your opinion, had some tired ole white bread democrat career politician run on the platform of "Change" and "Yes We Can", do you think the majority of Americans would have rolled their eyes and thought "here we go again"?

I think it was his combination of intelligence and temperament that inspired people to believe in him, not the color of his skin.

[Antitrust32]

Mariah Carey is black?

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by SniperSB23

I think it was his combination of intelligence and temperament that inspired people to believe in him, not the color of his skin.

I think it was a mix of the two.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by SniperSB23

I think it was his combination of intelligence and temperament that inspired people to believe in him, not the color of his skin.

For the most part, I believe this to be true. But to not acknowledge that were were a LOT of black people out there that voted on him strictly because he is a black man, and conversely, a lot of white people that wouldn't vote for him for that same reason, is turning a blind eye to the total truth.

I believe that there are many people out there, that if every word that McCain spoke would have come from Obama and every word that Obama spoke would have come from McCain, they still would have chosen the candidate that they did because it wasn't as much about what was said but who was saying them. I hope that I'm more wrong on this than I am right but I don't think I am.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

For the most part, I believe this to be true. But to not acknowledge that were were a LOT of black people out there that voted on him strictly because he is a black man, and conversely, a lot of white people that wouldn't vote for him for that same reason, is turning a blind eye to the total truth.

I believe that there are many people out there, that if every word that McCain spoke would have come from Obama and every word that Obama spoke would have come from McCain, they still would have chosen the candidate that they did because it wasn't as much about what was said but who was saying them. I hope that I'm more wrong on this than I am right but I don't think I am.

I think you are 100% correct

[SniperSB23]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

For the most part, I believe this to be true. But to not acknowledge that were were a LOT of black people out there that voted on him strictly because he is a black man, and conversely, a lot of white people that wouldn't vote for him for that same reason, is turning a blind eye to the total truth.

I believe that there are many people out there, that if every word that McCain spoke would have come from Obama and every word that Obama spoke would have come from McCain, they still would have chosen the candidate that they did because it wasn't as much about what was said but who was saying them. I hope that I'm more wrong on this than I am right but I don't think I am.

I agree on that and his being black certainly inspired more black people to go and vote that might have just stayed home otherwise. I doubt there were too many that would have voted Republican had the Democrat candidate been white though. I guess it would be interesting to see what would happen if a black man or woman ran on the Republican ticket.

And yeah, definitely true on people voting against him on the color of his skin. Hillary would have won West Virginia by 10 points and been competitive in Kentucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee. But she might not have inspired as many blacks to come out and vote in Virginia and North Carolina.

[geeker2]

Here a provoking thought...

Do you think the total acceptance of Tiger Woods by whites helped Obama?

[philcski]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

I don't want to get too far into the subject but remember, the law used to say that that if a person had 1/8th black in them, they were considered black. Their skin color could be white as snow but if there was 1/8th black present, it was a black person.

My grandfather was born in Louisiana in 1905. Growing up, he was easily the darkest member of his family. He was basically an outcast for one reason......because he was so dark. During that time, black people desired to be as light as they could. They wanted to have the wavy hair. They wanted to do anything possible to be able to pass for white....or to pass as anything other than black. By the way, my grandfather was lighter than Obama is.

Basically, throughout the history of black people in America, it's always been considered a desire to be light in skin color. Even today, I know people that specifically will date only white people in hopes of having really light skinned babies. My best friend and I used to really go at it over this. He'd say "I'm already dark as hell (he was) and if I have a baby with a black girl, my baby will have no chance in this world. As much as I hated to admit that, and I would argue it with him, inside, I knew there was some truth to what he was saying. We, as a nation, are making a lot of progress. But the job is not done with Obama being elected as president. There is still a lot of work to do as there are still a lot of racial issues that need to be dealt with.

Obama is considered a black man because he's got color. That's the simple truth. That's the way it is with most people of mixed races. They are almost always referred to as black people. Look at Tiger Woods. Halle Berry. Mariah Carey. The list goes on and on. Tiger is an interesting one because he goes out of his way to seemingly not identify himself as just a black person but he embraces his total background. There are a lot of black people that are really disappointed in him for that, saying he's embarrassed to say he's black. I'm not one of them. I think he's totally right to say he's just as much black as anything else and to be identified by all of his ethnicity. I see Obama doing that same thing. I get tired of black people calling other people of color sellouts simply because they don't do "all things black." I look forward to the day when it's not even an issue anymore and we don't worry whether a man is black, white, green, or red. In the end, we are all just people. But until that day comes, when you are brown, and you aren't Hispanic, you are considered black.

By the way, on applications, I will not check African-American because I was born in Tennessee, my parents were born in America, my grandparents were born in America, their parents were born in America. I am American.

You d*mned self-aggrandizer KG

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by GPK

Dala...in your opinion, had some tired ole white bread democrat career politician run on the platform of "Change" and "Yes We Can", do you think the majority of Americans would have rolled their eyes and thought "here we go again"?

It depends. I dont think the politician had to be black, spanish or a woman if thats what you mean. I think he/she needed to be younger to pull that off. When i say "younger" i mean younger than 50.

I am proud of our country in the sense that race didnt hurt him like i thought it might. In retrospect, it probably helped more than it hurt. I say that and I mean not to the degree that many bigots say i.e that he got elected BECAUSE he is black. I think that notion is preposterous and small minded.

Could Biden have pulled off the "yes we can" and "change" thing? Absolutely not.