Obama is not an African immagrant, so maybe I am misunderstanding that excerpt, but I confess I only skimmed it.
Shayna, somewhere the conversation has changed a bit over the course of this thread, too. I was railing against the ‘half-white’ comments. Nothing to do with his not being ‘black enough’ culturally, but he is ‘black enough’ culturally, without a doubt. I am a product of the hip-hop generation and we are a hard sell. No one since Malcom X has one our heart the way that Obama has, so all that is more hogwash.
I won’t even go into the idea that ‘educated, well spoken, successful = acting white’. I have started threads on that before. In my experience it is not true. Obama doesn’t ‘act white’ in the eyes of black people just because he is smart and highly educated, and frankly I find it offensive that people imply that crap.
But I am all over the place here, per usual. I think the best thing to do is to go with my husband on this one. He told be to calm the hell down and be reasonable. He said if white people want to claim a part of the phenomenon that is Barack Obama, I shouldn’t begrudge them that. I should celebrate that fact and he says he won’t hold it against me if I secretly revel in the fact that he has personally embraced being a black man. Good enough.
Not entirely - in his 2004 race for the US Senate his opponent, Alan Keyes (a black Republican chosen by the party after Jack Ryan dropped out of the race due to scandal) explicitly made “Obama is not black enough” part of his campaign.
It should be noted that that strategy did not work. Probably because anyone looking at him can figure out he has recent African ancestry
I’m bemused by the idea that Obama is a “phenomenon” to be “claimed” by anyone except Barack Obama (and perhaps his own family). I voted for Obama because his views align well with mine, and because he appears highly intelligent, extremely driven, and far and away the best candidate in this race—not because he’s black, or white, or half-and-half.
One of the things that impressed me was how little focus I saw, over the course of this campaign, on Obama’s race. I have trouble relating to those who seem compelled to obsess over it, to turn it over and over under a microscope and extract every possible meaning and implication. That includes both the ponderous debates on whether he’s “black enough,” and the personal investment some (like you) seem to have in declaring him Officially Black.
Frankly, it’s a little disappointing and a distraction. I suspect the man himself would prefer to be judged on his own merits, and not quarreled over like some contested plot of land.
OK, wow. . . I wish I had written that. I’m quoting it in its entirety for that reason. It’s the sentiment that I couldn’t express in words. Thanks for expressing that, Vinyl Turnip.
I respect that you voted for him on his merits, but I voted for him because he is black, in addition to the fact that I happen to like his ideas. If he had decided to not believe his own eyes and identify as not black, I would have respected that too.
But there is a struggle in the black community. A community that has indeed been given hell in this country. And I don’t blame the man for having great pride in the fact that he is the first black president. He has expressed that himself, and I don’t blame him a bit.
THAT is the thing that leaves me baffled, Nzinga, Seated – what’s a (reasonably) nice Liberal to do?
On the one hand I live among and am related to a lot of people who are stuck in about 1940 and are clinging desperately to the last shreds of white supremacy. I’ve argued with them for years, in words and action, and will continue to do so.
On the other hand I’m catching sixteen kinds of shit from Young Advanced Liberals who require some kind of color-blind, groups-don-exist approach that would seem to me negates black heritage.
If we’re all one race, then why vote for Obama on the basis of his skin color?
Can’t we enjoy some differences? Can we acknowledge that both black and white culture is diverse and multi-dimensional?
To quote a great man, Yes, we can, fessie. Yes we can.
Seriously, I think my husband was very right when he said it is actually a good thing to celebrate that so many people want to lay claim to the phenomonon. And it is indeed something for us all to share. In the black community, (mine, not every black community, I guess) we call eachother ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ for a reason. Obama does it too, actually, (have I plugged his book enough? There are two, but I have only finished one). It is a fact that we do see each other as a family, and we are thrilled for Obama to share this moment in history with us.
We shall gladly share it with the whole world. What the hell!
Speaking as a white person here, I think it’s important to recognize that part of why such a big deal has been made of Obama’s background is that there are many white Americans who don’t consider African immigrants to be “THOSE black people” either. Racism in America has always been more complicated than skin color. There are plenty of white Americans who have racist beliefs but are willing to accept that not everyone with dark skin is one of “THOSE people”.
Since Obama’s father was Kenyan, it’s probably easier for some white people to put him in the “not one of THOSE black people” category. A black politician who was, to use Joe Biden’s rather unfortunate words, “mainstream…articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy” could win similar respect from whites even if he was descended from African-American slaves and grew up in Anacostia, but might have a somewhat harder time of it than Obama. Then again, the perceived advantages of Obama’s “exotic” background may have been countered by fears that he was a secret evil Muslim terrorist. I suspect that most people who wouldn’t vote for Obama because they heard a rumor that he was a Muslim wouldn’t have voted for any black man anyway, though.
Interestingly, the attitude that foreign blacks are more “acceptable” than African-Americans goes back at least to the Jim Crow era. Whites were free to be quite openly racist towards blacks, but a black foreigner might be treated very differently than the garden variety black American. Several people have mentioned Malcolm X’s autobiography in this thread, and may remember a story he tells about meeting a visiting dignitary from an African country. When this man was dressed in traditional, ceremonial robes, he was treated with respectful interest by whites. But when this man put on a Western suit, he found that people treated him in a very different way…like he was there to shine their shoes or something.
Assata Shakur tells a story in her own autobiography about how her mother took her to a white-only amusement part by pretending to be a foreigner. Her mother could speak Spanish, and she pretended to only speak Spanish so she’d be treated as a foreigner who happened to be black rather than one of “THOSE people”. Angela Davis has a similar story about going to a shoe store in Birmingham, AL with her sister and pretending to speak only French. They were treated as honored guests and waited on hand and foot, but they normally wouldn’t have even been allowed in the front of the store.
I vehemently agree with your base sentiment, Nzinga, Seated: the man says he’s black, that’s fine with me. I like people with racial or cultural identities; people who aren’t afraid to celebrate who they are and where they came from.
That, by the way, has nothing whatsoever to do with why I voted for him. With a few exceptions, I agree with his plans and policies, and I think it will do this country a lot of good to have a charismatic, well-spoken President without the foreign-policy baggage of his predecessor. I voted for him because I thought he was the best choice, and I would have done the same whether his ancestry was Chinese, Maori, Egyptian, Gaelic, or whatever.
I know there were a bunch of people who voted for him just because he was black, and I don’t like that at all–but I suppose they cancel out the twits who didn’t vote for him just because he was black.
You have something many of us don’t: a racial/cultural identity that will accept you despite being American. A black person whose family has been in the U.S. for five generations can still be accepted by Africans. Too many other cultures (the Mexicans are a good example) tend to say, “you don’t talk like us, you weren’t born here, you don’t understand us, screw you”–even to 3rd-generation Americans of “pure” Mexican blood. You put on an African dress and you’re by golly African. I put on a kilt, and I’m just another American claiming Scottish blood.
Celebrate your heritage, and celebrate your President-elect. But remember he’ll be my President, too–whether he’s the same color as me or not.
Ok. Should be easy for me to remember that. I have had 5 presidents that aren’t my color.
I know that a lot of people were dissapointed with my decision to vote for the first time on the basis of race, but I have my reasons, I did my own soul searching, and it was what I decided to do.
I posted about this before, but briefly, I decided that poor, black people in the struggling ghettos have been under a cloud of despair. Although we have made great strides, and he country as a whole has come a long way, I believe that a great psychological shock is needed to convince some of my most down brothers and sisters that they are worthy. I believe a black president will be that ‘shock’ that they need, and I decided to vote based on that belief.
I may be wrong, but I have to go on my own experiences, and poor black people are my passion. It took my husband years to help me get over my own feelings of low self esteem when I was a young girl, despite my dad’s best efforts to convince me that my lips weren’t too big, my hair wasn’t too nappy, my skin not too dark, I am still beautiful even though I don’t look like barbie, our people aren’t stupid/theives/lazy/rapist…etc.
I believe strongly that black children in the future will now be much more easily convinced that I was.
Oh, I didn’t think you did. And I don’t doubt that there are a few whackjobs out who feel this way about Obama.
Waayy back during the beginning of Obama’s campaign, I created a thread ranting against the “Is he black enough?” meme pushed by the media (and unfortunately, I can’t seem to find it). We were only able to find two self-appointed “experts” writing about this (Stanley Crouch and some woman whose name escapes me at the moment). But the media was all abuzz for two solid weeks about it.
I hope you don’t think I was angry in my post, because I wasn’t. I was just saying that it sucks to get the “you’re not really black” stuff from BOTH sides. And like Nzinga, I’m frustrated that so many people seem willfully and suddenly confused about race. Obama is not a special circumstance who magically bucks all racial categories. Most black families in this country have an Obama. Maybe they are like my brother, who was given up for adoption by his white mother during the early 70s and adopted by my two black parents. Maybe they are the product of a interracial marriage or a simple afternoon delight. Or maybe they are simply the product of generations of mating between mixed people. If people have no problem identifying the light-skinned black woman who drives the schoolbus as black, then they should have no problem doing the same for Obama.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people go out of their way to say we’ve elected a “half-black”, as if our political discourse has ever referred to someone this way. No, it’s not technically wrong, but Obama doesn’t identify himself this way. And though I know intellectually it doesn’t take a thing from me for people to identify him this way, it DOES make me wonder how they would view him if he was “full-black”. Or, if he was actually Tyrone Johnson and he had just been charged with drug possession, would people be insisting he was “half-black” for their crime statistics? I somehow doubt they would be.
I agree that there is no unified “black” experience or culture anymore (if it ever existed), and that members of the Black Diaspora don’t always embrace their different parts. But I haven’t had much experience with this. For instance, my sister’s in-laws are Haitian. My family views them as different from us, of course. They speak Creole and French, eat “strange” foods, and have different family structures and traditions. They even have different racial hang-ups. But–and I admit we might be anomalies–we don’t think of them as being less black. Just “different”, in their lovable way.
The morning after the election, the BBC was interviewing people around the world as to what they thought about Obama being elected. Overwhelmingly, people in other countries said that his winning the White House made them feel better about their country, and that they could actually see themselves achieving things in their own nation, “simply” because a black man had won the White House in the US. If all Obama manages to achieve is the empowerment of people all over the world to strike out for a better life for themselves and their children, then he’ll be a good President. If he’s able to get this country on the right track, fix this mess we’re in, and fully return us to the ideals upon which this nation was founded, then he’ll be one of the greatest Presidents in our history.
I first became aware of Barack Obama when I heard him speak at the DNC in August 2004. I was listening to NPR and couldn’t see him. I did not hear a “black american accent”. I was not aware at the time that he was black or mixed race. Had he not mentioned that his father was born in Kenya, I wouldn’t have known. He mentioned that he came from an ethnically diverse background and that he was both glad and proud to be part of The United States of America, a country where one’s ethnic background doesn’t matter.
The only thing I heard in his speech that race or ethnicity might be a factor to him was:
And the part that really resonated with me:
That speech really got my attention. I’ve paid attention to Obama since then. I haven’t heard him say anything that contradicts that speech.
Yes, I’ve seen him and I realize that he’s black. Yeah, brown skin, wide nose, full lips, curly black hair, small ears, not much of a beard. Yeah. I understand the importance of him being the first black president of the United States and I understand that it is more emotionally meaningful to black americans than it is to a white guy like me. I really get it.
The point that I get out of it is that finally, the color of a man’s skin and his ethnic background are unimportant enough that we can come together and elect a black candidate based on his qualities and leadership ability.
I don’t get why so many people have to quantify Obama’s blackness as though he were a pumpkin pie that America proposed to divide. Half black, three-eights, eleven-sixteenths, whatever. Who gives a damn? He is who he says he is; he is what he says he is; but what’s more important is whether he does what he says he’ll do.
I voted Obama, but not because he was white or black, but because in his speeches, he said the things that I believe — said them more eloquently than I would say them. I get the strongest feeling that he would make decisions in the way I would like to see them made: thoughtfully, carefully, from a position of knowledge and deliberation.
That’s not to say that I can’t see how much good Obama’s presidency and his wonderful family will do for the self-esteem of young blacks in America today. I can, and it makes me proud to have voted for Obama to know that. The best story I heard out of the election was how Obama’s campaign recruiters would help young black men and women register to vote. One told the recruiter, it’s just not cool any more not to vote. That’s a cause worth supporting.
Are we thinking of the same Obama? Small eared he is not!
It’s news to me that ear size is considered a racial feature, but if small ears are a “black thing” then I guess that’s one way in which Obama might be considered not “black enough”. He’s still pretty cute for a politician, though.
Yes, absolutely. And how do you know all his ancestors are from Sweden? That’s the whole point: You donot know the racial history of any person outside your very close family and friends, so you don’t challenge the declared ethnicity or race of others, unless you’re a big honkin’ jerk.
Really. . . are they “white enough”?