# Obama is a Negro **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 27, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923 "2011-04-27T18:05:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amber_in_Treasury)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/101 "2011-04-29T19:46:34Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Plastic Jesus on the dashboard of Air Force One? That sounds like a curse or an expression of surprise to me. As in, “Sweet holy plastic Jesus on a dashboard!” ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/102 "2011-04-29T19:51:59Z")
I’m confused and I wish I hadn’t looked at my birth certificate. It doesn’t say what race I belong to; it does say that I am legitimate, though and it identifies both my mother and father as being white. So we know about them but what about me? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/103 "2011-04-29T19:55:17Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Now, lets not drag the Crab People into this. That’s ‘crustacean’, you insensitive bastard. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/104 "2011-04-29T20:01:52Z")
> [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](#): > > That sounds like a curse or an expression of surprise to me. As in, “Sweet holy plastic Jesus on a dashboard!” Its also a famous song or two. ---
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/105 "2011-04-29T20:16:01Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But and educated African man might not want to be lumped into a category that makes people think he’s a 2nd class citizen (in much of the country) who is likely not well educated and who is the descendant of slaves. > > It’s subtle, but I can see why he might have wanted that. Impossible to know, of course, but I don’t find it hard to believe at all. Honest question, was Obama’s father even around at the time of his birth? I know he was a nonentity for Obama’s childhood but am I not sure how early he was gone. Point being, was he even around to make such a preference known? Also, Obama was born in Hawaii, a state without the racial history of the South and where non-whites were a significant portion, if not plurality of the population. Is it possible that they would have used negro and african interchangeably? Or was somebody making the distinction between American Negro and African born African. What gets me is that lost in the noise created by the crazy people, is how non-standardized and often haphazard government record keeping can be. There were no standard terms for race used on the form, nobody made sure parents names were listed first name first or last name first and then started over when it was messed up. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/106 "2011-04-29T20:24:17Z")
[QUOTE=howye] What gets me is that lost in the noise created by the crazy people, is how non-standardized and often haphazard government record keeping can be. There were no standard terms for race used on the form, nobody made sure parents names were listed first name first or last name first and then started over when it was messed up. [/QUOTE] I also noticed that the form asked for the occupations of both of the parents (boxes 12a and 17a). But for the mother only (17b), it asked when was the last time she worked. Why is that important? [(12b) asked what “field” 12a was in…] I fear that human science will never be able to fully comprehend the intricacies of the beaurecratic mind. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/107 "2011-04-29T20:54:09Z")
> [@howye](#): > > Honest question, was Obama’s father even around at the time of his birth? I know he was a nonentity for Obama’s childhood but am I not sure how early he was gone. Point being, was he even around to make such a preference known? Yes. Remember, Obama was conceived before they were married. His mother was only 18. They wouldn’t have been married even a year when Obama was born. His father went out of the picture when he was bout 2. > [@](#): > > Also, Obama was born in Hawaii, a state without the racial history of the South and where non-whites were a significant portion, if not plurality of the population. Is it possible that they would have used negro and african interchangeably? Or was somebody making the distinction between American Negro and African born African. Blacks may have had it worse in the South, but they didn’t have it good anywhere. And there were lots of Asians in Hawaii, even then, and Asians don’t treat Blacks any better than Whites do. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/108 "2011-04-29T21:05:27Z")
Why wouldn’t Barack Senior have described himself as “Kenyan” instead of “African”? Probably an unanswerable question, I know. I mean, I’m not “North American.” ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/109 "2011-04-29T21:28:33Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > I also noticed that the form asked for the occupations of both of the parents (boxes 12a and 17a). But for the mother only (17b), it asked when was the last time she worked. Why is that important? [(12b) asked what “field” 12a was in…] > > I fear that human science will never be able to fully comprehend the intricacies of the beaurecratic mind. I didn’t bat an eye when I saw that, because it was issued in 1961, and women working outside the home was still The Devil’s Work by and large. (Either that or the women obviously wasn’t working that day, or for several days and weeks earlier (maternity leave and all) while nothing was stopping the man from doing so) For the record, I just checked my wife’s birth certificate (from 1962, province of Manitoba) . The fields are, in order: Place of Birth, Date of Birth, Child’s Full Name, Male or Female, Name of Father, Occupation, Maiden Name of Mother, Registration No., and a few other bureaucratic fields. No spot for “Occupation of Mother” (and, if I recall rightly, her mother was a housewife at the time of my wife’s birth anyways.) ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/110 "2011-04-29T21:30:59Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > I didn’t bat an eye when I saw that, because it was issued in 1961, and women working outside the home was still The Devil’s Work by and large. Even in 1961 Hawaii? (I really don’t know.) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/111 "2011-04-29T21:51:58Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Why wouldn’t Barack Senior have described himself as “Kenyan” instead of “African”? Probably an unanswerable question, I know. > > I mean, I’m not “North American.” Maybe because “Kenyan” isn’t a race. Yeah, I know “African” isn’t either, technically, but in the vernacular, it’s closer to a race than “Kenyan” is. ---
**Author:** ![Mapache](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58956e/32.png) [@Mapache](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mapache)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/112 "2011-04-29T22:04:53Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Maybe because “Kenyan” isn’t a race. Yeah, I know “African” isn’t either, technically, but in the vernacular, it’s closer to a race than “Kenyan” is. Anyway, in Hawaii the gummint lets you put down anything you want. Most of the people I knew were something like “Hawaiian/Japanese/Filipino/Cape Verdian” which wouldn’t fit in the space even if they had wanted to identify themselves that way. I identified myself from time to time as Eskimo, just because I didn’t like being made to fill out forms with a blank for “race”, and nobody objected. I’m not an Eskimo, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/113 "2011-04-29T22:51:07Z")
During the colonial era of the [British East Africa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Africa_Protectorate) and afterwards, “ **African** ” (along with “ **Indian** ” and “ **European** ”) **was** the most widely used **racial** label; all the native ethnic groups/tribes would have used that descriptor. The term **Negro** would have been very foreign to Obama Sr (or anyone who was raised in colonial Africa). He probably associated the word as an “Americanism” (Opposed to his use of UK English) or thought of it as an ethnic label (like how the term **African-American** is used today). However this is just guess work… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/114 "2011-04-29T23:05:10Z")
Hey, if there’s one thing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the United Negro College Fund can agree on, it’s the fact that using any term _besides_ ‘African-American’ is deeply, horribly, unforgivably racist. I mean, that’s just common sense. [Vaguely relevant.](http://satwcomic.com/obama-is-in-town) Rather funny. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/115 "2011-04-30T00:08:46Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Maybe because “Kenyan” isn’t a race. Yeah, I know “African” isn’t either, technically, but in the vernacular, it’s closer to a race than “Kenyan” is. D’oh! :smack: Of course you’re right. I was thinking of nationality, not race. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/116 "2011-04-30T02:30:16Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Her real certificate therefore should say “Russki” 🙂 No, “Yid” in Eastern Europe Jews (what few remain) are considered a distinct minority from the surrounding people descended from Christians or Muslims. Of course, under the Communists religion (or the religion of one’s ancestors) wasn’t suppose to matter, but it did as the speed at which anybody who could satisfy the Israelie immigration laws testifies to. What I have wondered about Orly is did she ever take any of the psychological exams used by the IDF to weed the real lunatics out of potential military recruits and if so what were the results? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/117 "2011-04-30T03:57:14Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > No, “Yid” in Eastern Europe Jews (what few remain) are considered a distinct minority from the surrounding people descended from Christians or Muslims… How about “Red Sea pedestrian”? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/118 "2011-04-30T12:44:53Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > How about “Red Sea pedestrian”? But think how divisive that would be! ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/119 "2011-04-30T13:41:42Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > And a bouncy suspension on the tires! And a horn that plays “La Cucaracha”. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923/120 "2011-04-30T21:31:37Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > But think how divisive that would be! Heheheheh. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-is-a-negro/579923.md?page=7)