# Obama will be our first Negro President!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-our-first-negro-president/452199>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 8, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-our-first-negro-president/452199 "2008-06-08T03:32:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-our-first-negro-president/452199/41 "2008-06-09T03:41:08Z")

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[QUOTE=DrDeth]  
Yes, Negro and Colored are a bit old fashoined but neither is racist.  
[/QUOTE]

They’re both racist because they were used in a racist manner for decades; that’s more than enough reason to avoid them. These are terms _everybody_ objects to. It makes no sense to say “there’s nothing racist about the terms.” There’s nothing insulting about any given word except for the agreed-upon meanings.

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**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-our-first-negro-president/452199/42 "2008-06-09T03:43:12Z")

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[QUOTE=monavis]  
Obama is both a black and white mixture  
[/QUOTE]  
Wouldn’t that make him a **mulatto** , as long as we’re being old-fashioned about it?  
Hell, yeah, I guess it would: I look up “mulatto” on Wikipedia and Obama’s picture comes up, I shit you not.

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**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\
**Post date:** [June 9, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-our-first-negro-president/452199/43 "2008-06-09T04:35:50Z")

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[QUOTE=Marley23]  
They’re both racist because they were used in a racist manner for decades; that’s more than enough reason to avoid them. These are terms _everybody_ objects to. It makes no sense to say “there’s nothing racist about the terms.” There’s nothing insulting about any given word except for the agreed-upon meanings.  
[/QUOTE]

So the previously mentioned UNCF and NAACP get the “only the people who are the target of the insult can use it” pass?

ETA: I’m trying not to argue either side here. But this discussion does remind me of that one Bloom County were the alien-zapped PC sensitive Steve Dallas was arguing with his mother about this issue (in fact, both above organizations came up in the ensuing discussion!)…

**Steve’s Mom** : People of color?  
**Steve** : People of color.  
**Steve’s Mom** : Colored people.  
**Steve** : NO!

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