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I posted this somewhere else; it should have been here. Rhetoric? It is called science and truth. I do not care what he looks like or how you would describe him to the police. The Fact is that it is FALSE to call him simply black. He is biracial. Sorry to burst your bubble. Facts are facts, you can not dispute them or explain them away with stories of victimization. That does not give you the right to spout a lie and call him the first black president.
original post:
I am sorry but this has to be addressed. I keep reading and hearing that Obama is the first black president. This is a glaring inaccuracy that I can no longer ignore. I am not criticizing Obama. As far as I know he has not uttered this phrase.
Obama is not the first black president; he is the first biracial president. Still a very impressive achievement that should be celebrated and reported as such. To call Obama the first black president is intellectually dishonest and offensive. Are we simply judging a book by its cover, because he appears more black than white.
To say this is the intellectual and logical equivalent of stating that Obama is simply the 44th white president. There is no difference. You can not take 50% of Obama's genetic makeup and assign it a value of 100%. If we did this in science....hell, there would be no science.
Quite frankly, it is disrespectful to Obama's white relatives. Have we simply dismissed them completely with this consistent inaccuracy. The only people I know who used this logic were old school racist who functioned under the "one drop" policy. If you had even just a smigen of black then you were black. Are we getting are scientific and historical cues from these people.
The media has been horrible about this. I am not saying it is manipulation or puposeful maliciousness on anyone's part. I just think people have got caught up in the moment. It is doubtful that he is even the first multiracial president. Definitely, the first biracial president. Sorry, not the first black president.
I am sure I will be flamed to no end, though I do not know why. I am simply stating a fact that everyone knows but seems to forget.
No, there is no such thing as "100%" black, as "black" is a social construct. You can be 100% African, but Obama of course is not, and very few people in the Western Hemisphere are.
I am white and if I were to walk into a room of blacks I would be treated differently, and don't tell me I wouldn't. That "behavior" runs through both sides.
Why is this even an issue? Obama is biracial. Big friggin' deal. So are my grandchildren. What's your point?
Does it somehow make him a better man if you deny the fact that he is half white?
I am just so over this whole race issue. Who cares? He's an American and a mutt--just like the vast majority of us. Personally, I am Norwegian, Scottish, and Apache. But I don't go around advertising the Native American part of my ancestry while ignoring that which makes me Caucasian as well. Neither do I refer to myself as a Scando-Scottish Native American.
Is the height of ignorance. Regardless of having a white mother and a black father, his skin color is still darker than a caucasian- and YES, BLACK and has a result, the barriers that he overcame to get to the white house were many, and up to just a few years ago- unthinkable for many.
Unless you are non-caucasian and have ever been treated different solely based on the darkness of your skin or your appearance- and nothing else- you really have no perspective on what this means. People's actions speak louder than their rhetoric.
Barack Obama is indeed America's first black President. To discount this in anyway is bigotry and America at it's absolute worst.
I disagree. Why are you looking at the color of the skin? Obama is the first half Black and half White President!!! And that's a FACT!!!!!!! Obama has White blood in him!!!
Is the height of ignorance. Regardless of having a white mother and a black father, his skin color is still darker than a caucasian- and YES, BLACK and has a result, the barriers that he overcame to get to the white house were many, and up to just a few years ago- unthinkable for many.
Unless you are non-caucasian and have ever been treated different solely based on the darkness of your skin or your appearance- and nothing else- you really have no perspective on what this means. People's actions speak louder than their rhetoric.
Barack Obama is indeed America's first black President. To discount this in anyway is bigotry and America at it's absolute worst.
I love it! Now its racism to call a black man half-white? God help America.
Regardless of his skin color, Obama is bi-racial. I am not discounting he is dark-skinned, or that he is a "real" black man, or the first black President. In his book, however, he does not discount his white ethnicity - why should anybody else?
People keep calling him mixed-race because thats what he is...
Remember when people wanted Tigers Woods to downplay the fact that..
He is half Asian and he was having none of it!
Is the height of ignorance. Regardless of having a white mother and a black father, his skin color is still darker than a caucasian- and YES, BLACK and has a result, the barriers that he overcame to get to the white house were many, and up to just a few years ago- unthinkable for many.
Unless you are non-caucasian and have ever been treated different solely based on the darkness of your skin or your appearance- and nothing else- you really have no perspective on what this means. People's actions speak louder than their rhetoric.
Barack Obama is indeed America's first black President. To discount this in anyway is bigotry and America at it's absolute worst.
True.. the fact remains that he has mixed parentage. However..Looking at Barack, it is obvious from his physical characteristics that he is black, period. If Joe blow from the street did not know who Barack Obama was and met him for the first time, I am sure he would arrive at the automatic conclusion that Obama is a black man. I won't personally say that those who discount the fact that he is black as bigoted. Likewise, it's their right to make that argument.
On the same token, it would be very unfair for anyone to expect him to discount or refrain from his white heritage.
However, the fact remains that no matter HOW much white ancestry you have, society at large will view and judge you as a black person.
My own argument is had Obama attempted to obtain public accomodations or other services in the Deep South over 50 years ago, rest assured, I can guarantee that he would have received instead the debilitating and degrading treatment many, if not all blacks at that time were the receptors of. I highly doubt the racists would see acknowledge, let alone give a damn about his "white" side. He would have been labled "colored" like every other person was and treated as such.
No longer can black folk look at there children and claim they dont have any opportunities.
You've played the race card for the last time. Enjoy your seat at the table
Want to bet? It will take more than one person to see any sort of change. There have been successful black people through out history. The blacks have managed to convince the PC crowd that the world is against them and it is impossible for them to better themselves. It's really a shame to have so many able-bodied people playing the race card. Going off topic here: If I thought the world was that bad, and I couldn't get ahead, the last thing I'd do is have a child. It makes no sense to me.
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