Presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama gave the best answer to the question whether he's black, mixed race or something in between. He recently told a Chicago fundraiser crowd that to some he wasn't black enough, and he then promptly added that others say he might be too black. He's right, the knock against him has either been that he is too black or not black enough, not that he is too mixed race or not mixed race enough. Despite his occasional references to his white mother and grandmother, Obama by his own admission has never seen himself as anything other than being black. He says that's been that way since he was 12. It's that way for those whites who flatly say that they won't vote for him because he's black. His Democratic primary losses to Hillary Clinton in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky showed there are legions of white voters who feel that race does matter to them. Few have said that they oppose him because he's mixed race.Yet, the silly debate continues to rage over whether Obama is the black presidential candidate or the multi racial candidate. The debate is even sillier when one considers that science has long since debunked the notion of a pure racial type. In America, race has never been a scientific or genealogical designation, but a political and social designation. Put bluntly, anyone with the faintest trace of African ancestry was and still is considered black, and treated accordingly. Their part white ancestry doesn't give them a pass from taxis refusing to stop for them, clerks following them in department stores, from being racial profiled by police on street corner stops, from landlords refusing to show them an apartment, or being denied a promotion. The mixed race designation doesn't magically make disappear the countless other racial sleights and indignities that are tormenting reminders that race still does matter, and matter a lot to many Americans.Indeed, from the moment that Obama tossed his hat in the presidential rink a year ago, the mantra of the press and the public has been, "Is America ready for a black president?" Not "Is America ready for a mixed race president?" The equally incessant mantra is that Obama if elected will make history as America's first black president not the first mixed race president. That tells much about the still frozen public attitudes and perceptions about race and politics in America. The deepest part of America's racial fault has always been and still remains the black and white divide. This has spawned legions of vile but durable racial stereotypes, fears, and antagonisms. Black males have been the special target of the negative typecasting. They've routinely been depicted as crime prone, derelict, sexual menaces, and chronic underachievers. There are slightly more than 6 million persons that self-identify themselves as mixed race in America. The number of persons with a black and white parent is a minuscule less that one half of one percent.By contrast, African-Americans (mixed or not) number more than forty million in America and make up about twelve percent of the population.The designation then of "mixed race" is so new, benign and amorphous it softens racial attitudes and dilutes racial hostility. It carries none of the negative racial baggage that black or African-American does. This is the big reason that scores of blacks have been frenzied over Obama's candidacy. They have turned out in record numbers in some primaries and have given his candidacy the greatest boost forward. They have been unabashed in saying that they back him with passion and fervor because he is black. It's hard to imagine that they'd cheer him with the same passion if he touted himself as a mixed race candidate. The thrill and pride for them is that a black man could beat the racial odds against blacks and scale the political heights.The stock line is that Obama's candidacy shows how far America has come in that a black man has a real shot at grabbing the top elected spot in the land.No one says that Obama's candidacy shows how far America has come in that a mixed race man can win the White House. If Obama does win the presidency the new line will be that it shows not just how far America has come on race (meaning racial attitudes toward blacks), but that America has finally arrived on race (meaning racial attitudes toward blacks). Substituting mixed race for black would not have the same meaning or significance to blacks or whites.If Obama grabs the White House, he'll claim it as a triumph for all Americans. Many blacks will claim it as a triumph for them. They'll both be right. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is The Ethnic Presidency: How Race Decides the Race to the White House (Middle Passage Press, February 2008).
http://earlofarihutchinson.blogspot.com/
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a nationally acclaimed author and political analyst. He has authored ten books; his articles are published in newspapers and magazines nationally in the United States. Three of his books have been published in other languages. He is also a social and political analyst and he appears on such TV programs as CNN, MSBC, NPR, The O'Reilly Show, American Urban Radio Network, and local Los Angeles television and radio stations as well. He is an associate editor at New America Media and a regular contributor to Black News.com, Alternet.com, BlackAmericaWeb.Com and the Huffington Post. He does a weekly commentary on KJLH Radio in Los Angeles.
But if my mother were white and my father was a black Marxist from Kenya, already married to someone besides my mother, and my father abandoned me, and I grew up in Indonesia, and then moved to Hawaii to be raised by white grandparents, one of which (his grandmother) was the VP of the Bank of Hawaii, then how do I identify myself as being African American, and not bi-racial.
I could see it if he grew up in a city where there were racial tensions and overt discrimination by whites against blacks, but Hawaii and Indonesia?. In Hawaii blacks were only 2.5% of the population and 80% of them were military or military dependents. I doubt Obama experienced or observed much white on black racism. In Hawaii, whites were and are a minority, called "haole". In his days, he would have regularly seen housing ads that made no effort to hide racial preferences. Ads that read, "No haoles" or "AJAs (Americans of Japanese ancestry) Only".
Perhaps when he went to college he had some experiences, but that was in the late 70's when much of the civil strife of the 60's and early 70's was scaled down, and he already said he identified himslef as black from age 12.
Thats a personal choice, so I do not judge it, but find it curious all the same. It seems to be, that should I wish to unite the country, I would at least remind people that I am half white. Politically, being African American doesn't help him much. Most vote Democrat anyways, those that are not subjected to election fraud and caging. It hurts him with Hispanics, since blacks and hispanics have their own racial thing going. It certainly does not help with the White rural folks, especially in the South, who might want change, but fear being enslaved by blacks (not saying this is a rationale fear).
Politically, calling himself biracial was the way to go (the black community would still adopt him anyways). Of course, his book Dreams From My Father published in 1995, and proof read by his dying Mother, which includes some unkind comments about her, made that difficult since he clearly had some unkind feeling toward whites. But people can change their outlook.
But he sticks with being African American, his choice, it's a free world. Then after becoming the presumptive nominee he immediately kneels at alter of the temple of AIPAC and Israel, one of the countries that supported South Africa in the apartheid years when most countries were sanctioning them, selling them weapons and giving them nuclear weapon capability. If I was African American, I might be a little unhappy about that.
Then there is the Pastor Wright denial. Add to this the controversy on if he was ever a Muslim. His step father was an Indonesian Muslim, and he lived in Indonesia. Now, I can't hold a child accountable for the religion of his parents. And the fact that he might have studied the Koran, spoke Arabic and went to the mosque with his step father is not necessarily a bad thing. he is a Christian today who was exposed to Islam as a kid.
To me, he has all the attributes of someone who can unite people. he is Black and White, Christian who has had exposure to Islam. Yet he distances himself from his white heritage and his Islamic connection.
His cousin, or good friend, in Kenya is leading an opposition movement and has supposedly aligned himself with an Islamic Extremist group ( Sheikh Abdullah Abdi of National Muslim leaders Forum of Kenya), and there are accusations of ethnic cleansing, yet this gets little mention.
by
pft (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 334 comments)
on Monday, June 16, 2008 at 9:02:51 PM
when they are of a differant race. I know that the 70's still were NOT all that civil to blacks. I do not know what it is like to be a black in America. I had friends in the Army in the 70's that would tell me of the terrible things done or said to them when out in public. Many people tell me those same things still happen in now. Certainly not the lynching but the imprisonment of those black males who may have looked like the "suspect" and years later are found by DNA to be not guilty at all. The ole so true DWB- driving while black. So I, as a white woman do not know what Senator Obama and his wife have gone to or why he doesn't see himself as bi-racial. And I, as a human am only happy that he is who he is.
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shanti (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 38 comments)
on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 10:29:05 AM
Hutchinson is lying. The Multiracial Movement clearly showed that BLACKS are the ones who support forced racial classification and the myth that "black blood" is genetically damning and makes nonblacks "black." Whites as a group are not interesting in supporting that. Blacks are fanatic about it. Hutchinson is also hypocritical in following the gentlemen's agreement that the African ancestry of Latinos and Arabs is not to be acknowledged. If whites were enforcing "one drop," then Latinos and Arabs would be "black." Hutchinson, like other blacks elites of his ilk, has been given a forum to mislead the public and frighten ignorant people into the black fold. Of course, no one is allowed to reply to their lies because they are "black."
by (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 8:42:33 AM
