# What percentage of African Americans are descendants of slaves? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 11, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002 "2008-03-11T19:18:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/41 "2017-01-05T15:46:38Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Standards like the 1/8 law are inherently logically problematic, too. Suppose, for instance, that your great-great-grandmother was brought over from Africa as a slave, but that all the rest of your ancestors were completely European-descended, too. Does that mean that you’re only 1/16 black, and hence officially white? Well, maybe… But what race was your mother? Well, she was 1/8 black, so she counts as black. And if your mother was black and your father was white, what does that make you? Half-black, and hence black. Just to reiterate, the poster saying it was ‘US law’ to define one’s membership in a ‘minority group’ as 1/8 ancestry was making it up, or as another poster noted referencing obsolete laws in some states defining who as a ‘negro’. There is no law defining minority group membership for the purpose of modern day race preferences, or identity politics. It’s just whatever the person feels, or is willing to say they feel, with some limit as to what will ‘sell’ with the target audience in case it’s a private preference or the world of politics (eg. the NAACP lady who had no apparent recent African heritage but considered herself African American, that didn’t fly with enough people to sustain once it was known, but there’s no clear illegality in making such a claim even for personal benefit). So there’s a logical problem with the current system also, which is becoming a greater source of opposition to such policies in an age of higher immigration (should current day African immigrants who come to the US voluntarily benefit from policies to redress historical prejudice against the descendants of those brought here against their will?, should white South African immigrants benefit too?) and higher rates of intermarriage. And especially as the idea of ‘race’ preference has been extended to more ambiguous groups like Hispanics. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/42 "2017-01-05T16:10:27Z")
When I said “the 1/8 law”, I meant the law as it was in Florida and a few other states a century ago, not any purported current law (which I am not at all surprised to learn does not exist). ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/43 "2017-01-05T18:00:18Z")
> [@justme74](#): > > Genealogical Researchers investigated Barack Obama’s genealogy in detail, examining official government birth records in both the United States and Kenya. From this primary source documentation, the researcher came to the conclusion – Obama IS NOT BLACK. You know, there is actually a wiki page on his [family](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_of_Barack_Obama). There are self-declared Arabs in Kenya - a whopping 40,000 or so, mostly on the coast around Mombasa in particular. Obama’s family appears to overwhelmingly from the far west, where the Luo ( a few million of them ) mostly live. That he may have some Arabic ancestry wouldn’t be surprising or shocking. But I am suspicious about whether your genealogy actually reflects reality. At any rate the difference between “Arab” and “black” in Africa doesn’t really follow American assumptions about race and aren’t particularly intuitive in an American context. You can self-consciously be an Arab in a place like Sudan, even a racist one who denigrates what they consider “blacks” and still have skin color that is considerably darker than President Obama’s. Obama is black because Americans define blackness by skin color and he lives in the USA. My mixed race nieces and nephews are black despite their white father, because they have mocha skin. Obama’s actual ancestry as such is therefore functionally irrelevant as far as how he is treated by the society he lives in. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/44 "2017-01-05T18:46:03Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Cite? Remember that under the feudal system, in Britain at least, very many people were effectively slaves. Or you could go back to Roman times - plenty of slavery there. Peasants were by no means slaves. England didnt have serfs, which are somewhat closer to slaves, but still not. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/45 "2017-01-05T22:50:39Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Peasants were by no means slaves. England didnt have serfs, which are somewhat closer to slaves, but still not. Medieval England did have slaves though. As an institution it declined after the Norman conquest - but still as of the Domesday Book in 1086, ~10% of the population were slaves. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/46 "2017-01-05T23:37:54Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > like slavery in other period and places – that is, not based on formal racism (while perhaps based on _race_ if that makes sense) I’m sorry–it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/47 "2017-01-06T01:02:44Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Fascinating. Can you link to the source of this research? Awwww. I’m still waiting for our new member to share the source of this groundbreaking research. Damn. I guess I’ll never 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:** [January 6, 2017, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/48 "2017-01-06T03:05:40Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Awwww. I’m still waiting for our new member to share the source of this groundbreaking research. Damn. I guess I’ll never know. [Here’s a start](http://www.cf-cia.org/obama_lineage.htm), and it’s got some more juicy tidbits about other Presidents and their “interesting” heritage! ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/49 "2017-01-06T03:28:55Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > [Here’s a start](http://www.cf-cia.org/obama_lineage.htm), and it’s got some more juicy tidbits about other Presidents and their “interesting” heritage! Well I’m convinced. I thought the source would be some crackpot site. But the “Central Florida Community Impact Alliance” seems legit. They got their information from the well respected site [arcadeathome.com](http://arcadeathome.com). Yeah, that’s a gaming site. But gaming sites are my go-to source for Presidential genealogy research. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/50 "2017-01-06T06:51:20Z")
I read somewhere that the word “slave” came from the fact that so many of medieval Europe’s slaves came from the Slavic region. If you think about it, culturally Obama is about as far from African-American as he could get, considering his skin colour. His African father left before he was born, he had minimal contact with him, he was raised by a white mother and grandmother in the most culturally diverse place in the USA, 2500 miles from the nearest “black ghetto”. (With a brief interlude in Indonesia). I’m guessing he didn’t encounter much of the deeper social problems African-Americans face, or their culture, until he went to college. Then he got an elite education at Harvard, which put him in a different milieu than the vast majority of Americans, black or white. yet despite being cosmopolitan, with an experience of the wider world and an education that displayed his brilliance, and a career that was even more outstanding - he still got a loads of virtual manure dumped on him simply because of his skin colour. (IMHO the person with the most amazing story to tell would be Michelle’s mother - growing up in an era where open discrimination and “Whites Only” signs were the norm, to living in the White House. That has to be an incredible transition… Raising your children well can be rewarding.) As for “Obama was Arab?” WTF??? In terms of ethnicity, seriously? Google his picture. If he’s Arab, then so is all of Africa. I’ve been to the Middle East, I’ve seen darker-skinned Arabs. they don’t look like that. That area of Africa is Muslim typically, the ones that didn’t convert when the Europeans took over; Barak but as mentioned above, plenty of Muslims are NOT ethnic Arabs. > [@](#): > > When Obama (Sr.) was about six years old and attending a Christian missionary school, he converted from Islam to Anglicanism when strongly encouraged by the staff. He changed his name from “Baraka” to “Barack.”[1] Obama (Sr.) later became an atheist, believing that religion was mere superstition. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/51 "2017-01-06T14:16:27Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Well I’m convinced. I thought the source would be some crackpot site. But the “Central Florida Community Impact Alliance” seems legit. Oh, god. They’re from my town. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/52 "2017-01-07T06:47:38Z")
Barack: A Hebrew name ברק from the Tanakh (Old Testament) meaning ‘lightning’. Not Arabic. Hussein: One vernacular spelling for the Arabic name الحُسَين al-Ḥusayn. Which means ‘the little handsome one’. The original person by that name, Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, was the little brother of al-Ḥasan ‘the handsome one’, so in effect they called him ‘Little Ḥasan’, using the Arabic diminutive form. When our president was born in 1961 the name Hussein had not gotten bad press the way it did when Saddam ruined it in the 1990s. At Obama’s birth the name Hussein was associated with the then-young and dashing, aviating King of Jordan. He got plenty of good press. His reign tried to implement moderation and he was a good friend to the British. His conquered great-grandfather, his assassinated grandfather, and his deposed father never achieved stability in Jordan, but Hussein made it a model of stability in the Arab world. He also married and queened a totally hot American woman whose father headed the FAA in the Kennedy administration. You got it one-third correct. Obama: the language of this name is Luo, a language of the Nilo-Saharan family, which makes it unrelated to the Afro-Asiatic family, of which the Semitic branch includes Arabic and Hebrew. Seriously not Arabic. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/53 "2017-01-07T16:45:55Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Medieval England did have slaves though. As an institution it declined after the Norman conquest - but still as of the Domesday Book in 1086, ~10% of the population were slaves. Yes. There were a few slaves. But that doesnt make _"Remember that under the feudal system, in Britain at least, very many people were effectively slaves. "_ a true statement. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2017, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/54 "2017-01-07T18:33:35Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Barack: A Hebrew name ברק from the Tanakh (Old Testament) meaning ‘lightning’. Not Arabic. Wikipedia, which admittedly doesn’t know everything, says that Obama’s name is from the Semitic root _B-R-K_, not _B-R-Q_ from which the Hebrew ברק is derived: > [@](#): > > This article is about the given name from the Semitic root _“B-R-K”_ meaning “to kneel down”. For the given name from the unrelated root meaning “lightning”, see _B-R-Q_. […] > > The given name Barack of US president Barack Obama is derived from the same root [_B-R-K_]. However, Bārak بارك is not a given name in Standard Arabic. The Arabic given name derived from the root B-R-K is Mubarak ( مبارك “blessed (one)”). However, it appears that the variant Bārak has a tradition as a masculine given name in Islamic parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. So while Obama’s first name isn’t exactly an “Arabic name”, it’s derived from an Arabic term which does have a Hebrew cognate, but which is not in fact the Hebrew name ברק. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/55 "2017-01-08T12:53:51Z")
> [@justme74](#): > > … > From this primary source documentation, the researcher came to the conclusion – Obama IS NOT BLACK. To be precise, the researchers determined that Barack Obama is: > > 1. 50% Caucasian > > 2. 43.75% Arab, and > > 3. 6.25% African Negro Of course President Obama is black. I believe what you meant to chime in with to create this zombie is that President Obama’s source pool for genes is not predominately recent sub-saharan ancestry. Race categories in the US are [self-assigned](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/us/politics/03census.html), and with good reason. You cannot define some sort of biologically-certifiable “race” using genetic markers. Nor can you assign it by pedigree, since the ancestors have the same problem. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/56 "2017-01-08T21:56:47Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > Race categories in the US are [self-assigned](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/us/politics/03census.html), and with good reason. You cannot define some sort of biologically-certifiable “race” using genetic markers. Nor can you assign it by pedigree, since the ancestors have the same problem. Except for Native American, which is decided by each tribe. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/57 "2017-01-09T16:29:22Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > Of course President Obama is black. > I believe what you meant to chime in with to create this zombie is that President Obama’s source pool for genes is not predominately recent sub-saharan ancestry. > > Race categories in the US are [self-assigned](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/us/politics/03census.html), and with good reason. You cannot define some sort of biologically-certifiable “race” using genetic markers. Nor can you assign it by pedigree, since the ancestors have the same problem. Like I said - Google images of Obama senior. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that person has anything more than a trace of ethnic Arab, unless one is suggesting that genes for race do not define appearance to any significant degree. He is exactly what he claimed to be, a member of a local ethnic group (“tribe”?) located in Kenya. Attempts to suggest otherwise appear to me to be the same as the “birther” movement, attempts to attribute to Barrack Obama something he is not. (“Arabs bad! Obama must be Arab!”) And from what little I’ve read, Obama Sr. never claimed to be anything other than Kenyan. His relations still mostly live in that area of Kenya. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002/58 "2017-01-09T19:38:15Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Like I said - Google images of Obama senior. There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that person has anything more than a trace of ethnic Arab, unless one is suggesting that genes for race do not define appearance to any significant degree. He is exactly what he claimed to be, a member of a local ethnic group (“tribe”?) located in Kenya. Attempts to suggest otherwise appear to me to be the same as the “birther” movement, attempts to attribute to Barrack Obama something he is not. (“Arabs bad! Obama must be Arab!”) And from what little I’ve read, Obama Sr. never claimed to be anything other than Kenyan. His relations still mostly live in that area of Kenya. Note that I am not suggesting President Obama is anything genetically. Just suggesting what the poster meant to, or should have, said. If you want to know the makeup of his genetic source pools, you need to test for the relevant markers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-percentage-of-african-americans-are-descendants-of-slaves/441002.md?page=2)