It’s absolutely the timbre - I’ve talked to some people on the phone and then had them come into the library for things and been very surprised sometimes.
And he’s black enough for this, which is generally what counts.
I think it was Chris Rock who had a bit about the more Tiger Woods won the less black he got - he started out as a black golfer but then he was a quarter Asian and all, but if he stole your car you wouldn’t call the cops and tell them a quarter-Asian-quarter-white-guy just jacked you.
Agreed. Most black people I know have that timbre - including those with one black parent. I’m talking about black british people (and one black Italian person), not just Americans, so it’s nothing to do with dialect. Occasionally a white person does too, especially while singing. Obama definitely has that timbre.
Working for the Obama campaign in Kansas City in 2008, I very definitely got the impression that the fact that this Black man was raised by White people from Kansas was an important factor in making it possible for White voters to vote for him.
The thing that’s hard for foreigners to understand is that in America, you’re either black or you’re not. There ain’t no half-black. You can be half Irish and half German, but you can’t be half black and half white, because half black and half white makes you black. And so we have your Lena Hornes and your Ice-Ts and your Colin Powells and your Julian Bonds who must have at least 3/4 European ancestry, but they’re just black.
Other countries have more complicated racial and ethnic distinctions, but in the US that doesn’t exist.
What a lot of white people don’t seem to understand is that black people are already mixed. Just about every black family already includes a couple of white folks. Not just in the past, but today. It’s pretty easy as a white person to live in an all white world, but blacks are only 12% of the population. It’s pretty common when you’re in a setting with a large number of people to look around and there’s maybe one black guy there. That happens to black people all the time, even if you live in a majority black neighborhood if you go a couple of miles you’re back in the minority. It’s about 100 times more rare to take a look around and find yourself the only white guy in the room.
Peek in at any black family reunion at the park this summer, and there’s always a couple of white folks. That’s just the reality of being a racial minority.
One other point is that I think you’d be hard pressed to find a black American who doesn’t have some white or “other” somewhere down the chute. Same goes for a lot of white Americans who have mixed race heritage going way back. I’ve got some direct, not so distant relatives who are black, despite me being solidly white— and that whole set up is even more complicated for black Americans who can trace their ancestry to the time of slaves. There were a whole lot of consensual intermixing. . . and a bunch of non consensual intermixing, creating groups of people who really are a melting pot.
So yes, Obama is half and half, but he identifies as black and that is what counts. Nobody has “pure” blood, so we go off of what the person identifies as.
He’s well within the range of skin tone where almost any American would consider him black, just by looking at him. Some might say “biracial”, but in this country, if you look like Obama and don’t make a point of being called “biracial”, you’re black.
One might quibble about him not having the same experience growing up as your typical American black person, but he still had to live in a culture most of his life where anyone meeting him is going to think “black guy”.
True enough. Take a look at CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien. There isn’t much about her that seems black, but according to Wikipedia “At the time, interracial marriage in Maryland was illegal, so O’Brien’s parents married in Washington, D.C. where marriage laws were less restrictive.”
Looking at that another way, it means that O’Brien would inevitably be labeled mixed-race even before her parents were married.
Pure speculation, but maybe she straightens her hair. With certain hair types she would easily look biracial/black. It seems like the vast majority of people with any significant amount of African ancestry do not have straight hair, even if most of their features and skin tone could pass for white.
As for the OP: Yes he is black. In the US, as others have said, you are either black or not, no halfsies. I unfortunately work with a number of racists, and they certainly have no doubts that he is black. And that is the wonder of his election. He is black enough that the racists won’t vote for him, but got elected anyway.
This is quite true. I have only experienced it once in 49 years. I was volunteering at a health-screening fair and was assigned to a station at a church in a black neighborhood. The only white face I saw all day was my own looking back from the bathroom mirror. For the record, everyone was exceptionally nice to “that white boy over there.”
I was about 20 at the time and it has caused me to go out of my way to speak to the single black person at an event, or any other “fish out of water” over the years. Perhaps I would be a better person if I didn’t need to make a special effort, but in fact I find it difficult to speak to strangers at all, so that isn’t going to happen. No, I don’t try to be hip or whatever. Usually just nod and say hello without fear or suspicion. Sometimes they want to chat, others not.
Agreed. Obama sounds black all the time to me, too.
I’m always surprised when people say Obama looks too light skinned to be black to them. He’s several shades darker than most biracial people I know, and nobody ever seems to be confused when they identify as black.
To use a term that’s gone out of favor (except in Jay-Z songs, apparently), Obama is high yellow, which is still most definitely “black” if it isn’t exactly black.
Your description of him as “half black” is biological; your description of his experience is cultural. Upon which criterion would you like us to judge his blackness? :rolleyes:
Yeah, you know, you’re right. I’m looking at some natural light pictures of him and he’s much darker than when he’s under stage lighting (like the debates). Could also be makeup.
Odd that Mitt Romney had the same problem, but his trigger was talking to Latinos.
All too true, as if there’s a TBM. Our last black presidential candidate, Jesse Jackson, was atypical I suppose. Yet his personality could easily be painted as “suspicious,” so it fit with the broader white prejudice. I think some right-wing whites are frustrated that Obama isn’t some wild-eyed, fire-breathing throwback who can easily be pigeonholed as a radical.
How many white people grow up in Hawaii, with a brief stint in Indonesia?
Obama’s life is pretty atypical regardless of whom you’re talking about. But guess what? Any one us of can pull out a detail or two from our lives that few other people can lay claim to, and use these details to proclaim ourselves atypical.
There’s no rule that requires the First Black U.S. President to meet certain criteria above and beyond that of having recent African ancestry.
