ANSWERS: 31
  • lol! youre right, but compared to all the other super white presidents we've had, obama is michael vick.
  • '''''''http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
  • Hey you think calling him black is erroneous, you should go to the south where he's the first ni**er president.
  • Why does this bother you?
  • Because, my dear friend, if he were 1/zillionith "black" he would be "black" to many...we call those people "racists" and we try to ignore them! :)
  • I once watched a show and it stated that if you have one drop of black blood in you, you're considered black. And the fact that most mixed people ARE considered black just helps prove it. Obama included.
  • As others have noted here, there's a long standing tradition in the U.S. of the "one drop" rule. Louisiana's vital statistics registry will classify anyone with 1/32 African ancestry or more as "Black." The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that rule in the mid-1980's, so it's still around. By that rule, I'm Cherokee, even though I don't speak the language, the culture played no role in my upbringing and I don't look even remotely Cherokee. This is an argument that Obama just can't win. If he stresses his Caucasian ancestry, there will be some people who think he's ashamed of being black and other people (racists) will think he's claiming a status to which he isn't entitled. It's not like he's hiding anything -- his bio isn't exactly obscure. But he's done what a lot of biracial folks do -- a former boss of mine (we were working on a demographics and Census project) said that in her experience people end up identifying with the group of people who share the same probability of successfully hailing a cab after midnight in New York City. Before he became well-known, how many people who passed him on the street thought to themselves, "Hey, look at that half-white guy?" You're correct from a genetics standpoint, but outside of a DNA lab, the social interactions with the people around you play a much more important, defining, (and constraining) role -- and they judge by appearance.
  • Current usage of the language is that anyone who has any African ancestry and in whom that ancestry is apparent is labelled as "black". This is not logical, but language (particularly English) is not logical, and you cannot apply the rules of logic to it. By the use of English as she is spoke today, Obama is Black. He is *also* mulatto, but common usage bundles the two together.
  • Exactly my thoughts ever since reading all the hype about a year back. Reminded me of book 'Passing for White' which I had read years ago. But here what I was witnessing was a reversal of the book's theme: 'Passing for Black". Incredible.
  • It seems days it all about colour,colour this colour that it never gets boring or out of place,out of hand like everyone agreed with it
  • Well, the white rascists of America keep referring to him as a black, and I don't think they're planning on assassinating just his black half.
  • What you are saying it totally true. Mulatto is an old term and not used much these days. My son is bi-racial. Black and white (and indian). I guess that would make him tri-racial. Just kidding. Anyway, I told him that most of the world would see him as black. In the black community if you are only half black you are accepted as though you were 100%. And if you are a white(mostly)woman with a black son you are also accepted by most black people. And the reason is....you understand some things about being black that most white people in general are not privy to.
  • Because, my dear friend: by most people if you are not white you are considered black.
  • Would it be better if people referred to him as "the First 50% Black President"?
  • Bush was half black. He was someone's niggar. He wasnt of the people for the people or by the people.
  • Because this country implemented the "one drop" rule centuries ago and have kept it up for the most part. Anyone who was part black was considered black even if they looked Caucasian. "Black" in out country stopped being synonymous with being 100% descended from Africans probably the moment the first slave master impregnated a slave. This prevented the illegitimate children of slave masters from claiming inheritance rights or freedom. For the most part, black people in America are not of "pure" African descent, so none are 100% "black". Nobody has an issue if a "black man" arrested for drug dealing is called black. Some of the most famous black americans were mixed and depending on the era, the question of whether they were "black" would not have been called to question. In our society, Barack, if he were not president would be treated like any other black man. Once upon a time, words like mulatto, quadroon and octaroon were tossed around but were found to be irrelevant since all of them ended up being called nigger anyway. Bottom line. He was raised as a black man. Has lived his life as a black man and considers himself a black man and will likely die considering himself a black man whether you feel the need to designate him something else or not. The same goes for many other black celebrities of mixed heritage. They did not invent the traditions of our society, but they have found a way to live within them . Perhaps one day we won't have these issues, but to expect hundreds of years of perception to disappear with one election is unrealistic. You stick a mixed man in a US prison and i guarantee he has a better chance of being accepted as a black man than trying to hang with the aryan nation guys. Even the more racially charged black groups in prison would just see a black man.
  • Look at him! How is a genetic dissection relevant? It's pedantry at best. It's ground-breaking he got to be President.
  • If they looked at it that way they wouldn't support him.
  • Here in the US we have notoriously rigid perceptions of race: a little color automatically makes you un-white.
  • Thank you.These differences don't matter to me much anyway.We are all different somehow,and face discrimination from one party or another.Obama being president has me more concerned then him being MULATTO. +5
  • Some people have trouble managing more accurate 3 syllable words like 'bi-racial.' Is he the first bi-racial president of the USA?
  • I'm pretty sure it was some dumba__ president who said, "once you have an ounce of black in you you're black". It was probably Richard Nixon, that a__hole. I also think its wrong to call Obama the first black president. I don't like the idea that someone has to join one side when they're obviously mixed.
  • I'll do you one BETTER: Who cares WHAT color Barack Obama is? Is it not MORE important the job he does AS president--than what's the "politically correct" term for his race? It's kind of like stopping to count DIMES on the ground--when HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS are falling from the sky!!! LOL
  • really! who cares! black, white, mulatto, purple, green....is it really that important to you that he be assigned a skin color!
  • Well because, first of all, its a really really big thing. In a country that has so many black people, but has been run by white people for so long its quite momentous. Although he is only 50% black, he is still black. America has come a long way from a time when blacks had no rights to where they now have a president of their own colour. And in fairness, it would have been a big advantage to him as he would pull alot of black peoples votes for him. And anyway, MULATTO doesn't really have the same ring to it as black.....????
  • Well he looks black and positive stuff about change and progress is coming out of his mouth. Their hasn't been a black or even half black president and people need to identify I suppose. It helps to pull them out of the gloom of what has happened over Bush and into the light again, to feel they could have value and purpose again.
  • they tend to cling to color no matter what and disregard he is half white too....all the glory goes to his blackness and he leans that way too...MLK 'judge not a man by his color, but the content of his 'character'....
  • Who cares if he's black, white, purple, or green? He's financially running our country into the ground! He has only been in office less than one year and has ALREADY SPENT MORE THAN ALL PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS COMBINED! It is a COMPLETELY useless distraction to spend time worrying about what race we should label him. We should instead be working to stop or slow the financial harm that's being done to us, by calling our congressmen and women and letting our voices and opinions be heard. America is NOT a socialist country, and we don't intend to become one!
  • Obama is the first to acknowledge his black ancestry but the sixth black President of the USA, after Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. While the others did not make their ancestry known for obvious reasons, Obama recognized that he could not pass for white and actually could win a larger block of the black vote. Jack Kennedy went into the Presidential campaign expecting the question of his Catholic religious faith to be raised. He acknowledged his faith and turned that into additional Catholic votes too. Obama probably studied the JFK speech.
  • I may look white to most of you but my dad wasn't white. Race is how people perceive you, not what you actually are. Take "Hispanic." It's not really anything to do with race but where your lineage was before you wound up in the United States. I've known people of Chinese, African, Japanese, and Arabic ancestry who listed themselves as Hispanic.
  • Because his skin color fools them into seeing him as only black. They are so mistaken; Bill Clinton was the first black president! LOL!! :o)

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