I thought most of the people who voted for Bush were Larry the Cable Guy.
Of course he credits his grandparents for raising him well. What in the world…?
Sweet mother of pearl, his white grandparents were awesome. Yes, Obama experienced the same kind of prejudices and suspicions and many obstacles that blacks in every city across America shares, though. Again, he has written about those experiences.
But heaven help us if this discussion gets to the point that it has to be pointed out that his grandparents raised him well. Holy moses, that shouldn’t be a point that needs to be made in this thread, it seems surreal.
And, white IT guys giving dap not withstanding…I’m going to guess that he probably had his first ‘pound’ with some black friends, like most other black men. It is simply one of those things entrenched in our culture like a ‘high five’. It’s not something we own.
This conversation is getting weirder and weirder to me. As a matter of fact, I think I better restate my position here. I think that a man who looks black, identifies as black and embraces his blackness, being born in these United States, having been considered black his entire life, should not be suddenly referred to constantly as ‘half-black’ not that he has accomplished amazing things. That being said, I now understand the desire of one to call him that, and I actually think it is kind of sweet, and therefore, I admit it has dampened my ‘pit’ fire a bit. I will no longer protest those on this board referring to him as half black.
Well, even if you ever did, you sure don’t own it anymore. 
And you can thank Mr. and Mrs. Obama for that. I worked on the campaign with a mostly-white group of suburban ladies, and let me tell ya–it was terrorist-fist-jab city!
I said, ""It is not my impression that being raised by a single white mother without much participation in a typical black community; … "
Perhaps I should have phrased it thusly: "It is not my impression that being raised by a single white mother, and being raised without much participation in a typical black community; … " so that it would be clear the non-participation in a black community referred to his upbringing and not his adult life. In other words, it’s not as if his upbringing reflects a typical black experience (the point which was at hand).
Oh! I agree wholeheartedly that his upbringing wasn’t typical! I misunderstood, I’m afraid. My fault. Yes, his upbringing was atypical, and thank goodness.
I am trying my full out best to also give my own daughter an atypical upbringing.
I sure hope she can still be considered black when she grows up, though.
Nah, some of us simply hadn’t seen this thread before. There was an interview in the last Big Issue (a magazine sold by homeless folk in the UK) with Desmond Tutu where he said (paraphrase as I don’t have the magazine here) that “people don’t have a problem with America, people have a problem when Americans behave as if they’re the only fish in the pond.”
Yes, we understood that the “American” was implicit. Some FNG is simply asking that it be explicited. It’s not so different from asking people to explicit the subject or to use “african-american” instead of “colored,” it’s perfectly acceptable to disagree (I’ve met african immigrants to the US who disliked this example because they weren’t American) but I know where the request comes from.
There was a letter published in an Irish newspaper the other day saying since Kennedy was refered to as the first Irish-American President then Barack Obama would be better refered to as the first Kenyan-American President.
“There’s no one more Irish than Barack Obama!” You gotta laugh. 