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One thing I don't get.... they seem to go to lengths to make it seem like these athletes are household names when they win medals or compete. Most of them are relative unknowns that we've never heard of before. Greg Louganis, Dan Phelps, Mary Lou Retton, Bruce Jenner, Nancy Kerrigan, they became well known AFTER their wins and with repeated exposure in the news( good and bad) or in commercials. Right now, the media coverage needs to do a better job of reporting the games and not trying to create stars out of people just competing in a game.
One thing I don't get.... they seem to go to lengths to make it seem like these athletes are household names when they win medals or compete. Most of them are relative unknowns that we've never heard of before. Greg Louganis, Dan Phelps, Mary Lou Retton, Bruce Jenner, Nancy Kerrigan, they became well known AFTER their wins and with repeated exposure in the news( good and bad) or in commercials. Right now, the media coverage needs to do a better job of reporting the games and not trying to create stars out of people just competing in a game.
Well, in the US, the "star" is more important than the sport.
That's precisely why you mentioned Nancy Kerrigan instead of Kristi Yamaguchi. It was Yamaguchi who won the gold medal--Kerrigan came in eighth. But Kerrigan was the one the US media gave star billing.
There wasn't really a choice--born and raised in the 60s and 70s, there was no such socially recognized term as "biracial." That meant nothing in the US.
The term "mulatto" was used prior to "biracial". Different word; same idea.
By the way, Brazil has 42 million people who are identified as biracial - - way more than any other country.
The term "mulatto" was used prior to "biracial". Different word; same idea.
Not in the US, not in the 60s and 70s. And it meant absolutely nothing in US society to be mixed/biracial/mulatto/whatever until the 90s.
Whatever word you wanted to use, anyone with enough African genes to be visible was treated by society as "black." If Obama had been where I was, he'd have been experiencing the same segregation I did.
I guess I'm taking "identify" to a greater degree than you are.
If you merely mean that she taught him to call himself "black," yeah, she likely did. There wasn't really a choice--born and raised in the 60s and 70s, there was no such socially recognized term as "biracial." That meant nothing in the US.
That doesn't necessarily mean Obama had the psychological identity of being a black American, any more than someone born and raised in Africa does. I would argue that psychological identity as an African American isn't possible for someone raised in Honolulu, particularly having observed that in my own children.
So if she raised him to identify as black, then he's not disrespecting her by doing just that. You may also be taking "identify" to a greater degree then President Obama, as he has always said that his mother is White American. But in those days, mixed people (white/other group) were almost alywas classified by their non-white heritage. Remember, the U.S. has more recently come around to recognizing a mixed identity.
So if she raised him to identify as black, then he's not disrespecting her by doing just that. You may also be taking "identify" to a greater degree then President Obama, as he has always said that his mother is White American. But in those days, mixed people (white/other group) were almost alywas classified by their non-white heritage. Remember, the U.S. has more recently come around to recognizing a mixed identity.
I just mentioned that in another thread.
"Biracial" had no social meaning in the US until the 90s.
Being mixed with white had no significance to white people. In the 60s, 70s. and 80s, if a person had any visible African genetics, he was considered unequivocally black. It would have been foolish and a great disadvantage to Barack if his mother had taught him any differently.
In fact, in US society his mother herself would have lost her "white card" even being married to an African, and would have been treated as a "traitor to her race."
It was used as a census designation from 1790 to 1930, so it absolutely was being noted.
But being half-white got nobody into a "Whites Only" bathroom.
It was in the 20s and 30s that miscegenation laws began to be most stringently enforced in the US, btw, as part of the overall immigration and eugenics salients of the day, so notice that it got dropped from the census--because it no longer mattered. Being half black was considered black after that point.
"Biracial" had no social meaning in the US until the 90s.
Being mixed with white had no significance to white people. In the 60s, 70s. and 80s, if a person had any visible African genetics, he was considered unequivocally black. It would have been foolish and a great disadvantage to Barack if his mother had taught him any differently.
In fact, in US society his mother herself would have lost her "white card" even being married to an African, and would have been treated as a "traitor to her race."
It seems to me that whites are all of a sudden pushing this biracial thing extra hard in order to dilute what little bit of political power that blacks have.
When I was growing up, whites were NEVER interested in how much white blood ANY black person had. If you had so much as a black eye, you were black and that's all there was to it.
If anything, the biracial thing made them extremely uncomfortable because that was an acknowledgement that miscegenation was going on.
My nanny was Mexican, and I can still remember the looks we'd get from white people when they thought she was my mother. Lol
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