AP, December 14, 2008
A perplexing new chapter is unfolding in Barack Obama’s racial saga: Many people insist that “the first black president” is actually not black.
Debate over whether to call this son of a white Kansan and a black Kenyan biracial, African-American, mixed-race, half-and-half, multiracial—or, in Obama’s own words, a “mutt”—has reached a crescendo since Obama’s election shattered assumptions about race.
Obama has said, “I identify as African-American—that’s how I’m treated and that’s how I’m viewed. I’m proud of it.” In other words, the world gave Obama no choice but to be black, and he was happy to oblige.
But the world has changed since the young Obama found his place in it.
Intermarriage and the decline of racism are dissolving ancient definitions. The candidate Obama, in achieving what many thought impossible, was treated differently from previous black generations. And many white and mixed-race people now view President-elect Obama as something other than black.
{snip}
But U.S. Rep. G. K. Butterfield, a black man who by all appearances is white, feels differently.
Butterfield, 61, grew up in a prominent black family in Wilson, N.C. Both of his parents had white forebears, “and those genes came together to produce me.” He grew up on the black side of town, led civil rights marches as a young man, and to this day goes out of his way to inform people that he is certainly not white.
Butterfield has made his choice; he says let Obama do the same.
“Obama has chosen the heritage he feels comfortable with,” he said. “His physical appearance is black. I don’t know how he could have chosen to be any other race. Let’s just say he decided to be white—people would have laughed at him.”
“You are a product of your experience. I’m a U.S. congressman, and I feel some degree of discomfort when I’m in an all-white group. We don’t have the same view of the world, our experiences have been different.”
The entire issue balances precariously on the “one-drop” rule, which sprang from the slaveowner habit of dropping by the slave quarters and producing brown babies. One drop of black blood meant that person, and his or her descendants, could never be a full citizen.
Today, the spectrum of skin tones among African-Americans—even those with two black parents—is evidence of widespread white ancestry. Also, since blacks were often light enough to pass for white, unknown numbers of white Americans today have blacks hidden in their family trees.
{snip}
Mix in a few centuries’ worth of Central, South and Native Americans, plus Asians, and untold millions of today’s U.S. citizens need a DNA test to decipher their true colors. The melting pot is working.
Yet the world has never been confronted with such powerful evidence as Obama. So as soon as he was elected, the seeds of confusion began putting down roots.
“Let’s not forget that he is not only the first African-American president, but the first biracial candidate. He was raised by a single white mother,” a Fox News commentator said seven minutes after Obama was declared the winner.
“We do not have our first black president,” the author Christopher Hitchens said on the BBC program “Newsnight.” “He is not black. He is as black as he is white.”
{snip}
Pride is the center of racial identity, and some white people seem insulted by a perception that Obama is rejecting his white mother (even though her family was a centerpiece of his campaign image-making) or baffled by the notion that someone would choose to be black instead of half-white.
{snip}
Attempts to whiten Obama leave a bitter taste for many African-Americans, who feel that at their moment of triumph, the rules are being changed to steal what once was deemed worthless—blackness itself.
“For some people it’s honestly confusion,” said Favor, the Dartmouth professor. “For others it’s a ploy to sort of reclaim the presidency for whiteness, as though Obama’s blackness is somehow mitigated by being biracial.”
Then there are the questions remaining from Obama’s entry into national politics, when some blacks were leery of this Hawaiian-born newcomer who did not share their history.
Linda Bob, a black schoolteacher from Eustis, Fla., said that calling Obama black when he was raised in a white family and none of his ancestors experienced slavery could cause some to ignore or forget the history of racial injustice.
“It just seems unfair to totally label him African-American without acknowledging that he was born to a white mother,” she said. “It makes you feel like he doesn’t have a class, a group.”
{snip}
Latinos, whom the census identifies as an ethnic group and not a race, were not counted separately by the government until the 1970s. After the 1990 census, many people complained that the four racial categories—white, black, Asian, and American Indian/Alaska native—did not fit them. The government then allowed people to check more than one box. (It also added a fifth category, for Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders.)
Six million people, or 2 percent of the population, now say they belong to more than one race, according to the most recent census figures. Another 19 million people, or 6 percent of the population, identify themselves as “some other race” than the five available choices.
{snip}
Today, it seems no single definition does justice to Obama—or to a nation where the revelation that Obama’s eighth cousin is Dick Cheney, the white vice president from Wyoming, caused barely a ripple in the campaign.
In his memoir, Obama says he was deeply affected by reading that Malcolm X, the black nationalist-turned-humanist, once wished his white blood could be expunged.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on December 15, 2008)
Comments
“Obama has said, ‘I identify as African-American—that’s how I’m treated and that’s how I’m viewed. I’m proud of it.’ In other words, the world gave Obama no choice but to be black, and he was happy to oblige.”
But Multi Cultism makes him “raceless,” does it not?
And now that he is the fist Affirmative Action “president,” should this not become far more of the case in point? Is he not, our mulatto “American” transcendentalist experience in “human” form? Is he not, the “Crossing of the Rubicon” for all of the white Marxist idiots and Third World “wonders” in this country?
It never ends, does it?
“Attempts to whiten Obama leave a bitter taste for many African-Americans, who feel that at their moment of triumph, the rules are being changed to steal what once was deemed worthless—blackness itself.”
Utterly Laughable, utterly laughable!
What “moment of triumph,” for any of them?
The prevaricating Reds and their abjectly worthless Third World voting automatons, are in for a rather harsh “awakening.”
The hammer of “hope” is nebulous, and the sickle of “change” is corroded; even, before it was in “power.”
As always, God help us all!
So I take it the black people who claim Obama is “black” are now okay with the old Jim Crow “one-drop rule”? Funny how that was decried as “racist” when white people were doing it.
Butterfield could have passed as Obama’s white running mate. See here:
http://butterfield.house.gov/
Hey, it pays to be black these days. And, most of the time it pays very, very well. Excessive judgments, free passes at school, cushy jobs, corporate Board positions, and even the presidency. All these one-droppers (sigh) and mulattoes (yawn) know full well that being black will get them somewhere….. somewhere good….. and somewhere fast.
But, I still wouldn’t want to be black. No way, no how!
High resolution photograph of G.K. Butterfield:
http://butterfield.house.gov/SupportingFiles/images/gk_butterfield_hres.jpg
Is Obama black enough for what? What is the point of these stories anyhow? What does it matter whether people argue over what shade of black he is and he is black!
Of course he’s black. It has to do with dominant vs. recessive genes. In matters of race, you can generally trust your eyes to tell you the truth (yes, I know there are exceptions, but they’re rare).
I’m all for creating a separate race category that would be identified as “Mixed,” because in spite of what some of the above say, mulattoes are not really black, nor are they white.
Does anybody think that Obama could have enough sense to acchieve any appreciable degree of success in school if he were black. (I’m assuming he wasn’t given everything via AA, but I could be wrong. He refuses to releases his records, and Bill Ayers DID write crucial parts of his book, no question about it.)
Actually mixed race children for the most part are a miserable group, not really identifying entirely with one race or the other deep down no matter what they say.
Advocating the mixture of races is one of the cruelest movement ever to beset the human race, because it creates such a crises of identity and so much confusion.
So I’m all for “Mixed Race” as an accepted race and I think the anthropologists should consider indentifying those people’s skeletal makeup and other data to categorize them as a race, both with black/white people and white/mestizo or black/white/mestizo people.
Obama has said, “I identify as African-American—that’s how I’m treated and that’s how I’m viewed
I get the impression with voting in 2008 that of the 48% of the popular vote went to McCain was a combination of die hard GOP supporters and people voting against Obama (to keep him out).
And the 96-89 percent black who voted for Obama was no great acomplishment. The fact Obama was black was probably just a bonus adding to a few black conversatives converting.
So inspite of all this and his confused racial background he was voted in, and we get to follow along in his confused journey.
So let the blacks have him, because at least the slate can be wiped. Considering he represents 13 percent of the population, having him as leader is a good return.
Was America Ever a White Nation?http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ouFm9Vj1PMY
My feeling is though that is neither race really, not both.
Pride is the center of racial identity, and some white people seem insulted
{snip}
Attempts to whiten Obama leave a bitter taste for many African-Americans, who feel that at their moment of triumph, the rules are being changed
“white people seem insulted…” They only seem insulted? Whereas blacks legitimately “feel.”
Note this attempt to invalidate the interests and concerns of whites, along with various other rhetorical sleights-of-hand in this article.
Look folks- - - HE’S BLACK - - - OKAY! If any of you saw him walking down the street would you say, “oh there’s a White guy!” No you wouldn’t. That’s what I keep telling these White women that have kids with blacks, you loose YOUR identity when you have kids with blacks. Your kids will be NOT look like you, but will be BLACK and identify themselves as black- - as they should. You just threw thousands of years of YOUR family history away and you’ll never be able to get it back.
So I take it the black people who claim Obama is “black” are now okay with the old Jim Crow “one-drop rule”? Funny how that was decried as “racist” when white people were doing it.
Posted by RHG at 6:03 PM on December 15
All these one-droppers (sigh) and mulattoes (yawn) know full well that being black will get them somewhere….. somewhere good….. and somewhere fast.
But, I still wouldn’t want to be black. No way, no how!
one drop rule is applied, historically, and by definition, to those people who look White but may have a great, great Black grandparent. So if you look totally White like, Brad Pitt, but then admit to having a great grand parent who is Black or even simply admit to having some Black ancestry, and then consequently someone says Braid Pitt is now “Black”, then that is the one drop rule applied. In other words, the one drop rule only refers to people who look completely White yet admit to having a Black ancestor in their family tree.
On the other hand, if someone is half Black or if someone clearly shows signs of Black ancestry (which obviously a half Black person will), what is being applied is not “one drop rule”, because surely said person has way, way, way more than one drop (actually a freakin’ boat load!), but what is being applied is hypodescent : “the idea that a person of discernible African admixture is Black”. Or simply “Lookism ”: i.e., if you look [insert group here] and are accepted by [said group] then you are a member of [said group].
I think what most people fail to realize is that the great race-mixing experiment has been tried before, and the results litter in the globe in third-world remnants of once-great states.
The middle east, India, Central America, South America, North Africa and East Houston are predominantly tri-racial hybrids. Maybe they would like us to export our liberals to them so they can “Mixx it up!”
He’s black I agree, but you can go to columns in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Huffington Post where hundreds and hundreds of people have commented on the issue where they have expressed some of the most amazing opinions. I would guess that most of these people are white and likely “educated.” He is white; he is mixed race etc,etc; but none seem to address what it means to the white race when they have increasing numbers of white women with children who are not white. These people have truely learned to hate themselves.
The clip posted earlierhttp://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ouFm9Vj1PMY
A Conversation about Race: TRAILERhttp://au.youtube.com/watch?v=aQmzQ-6xRZs
“A Conversation about Race” TRAILER 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVfuKNtOGII&feature=related
Short Clip: A Conversation About Racehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC0AuhogixQ
Excerpt from “A CONVERSATION ABOUT RACE”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeU_5YmS_9E
A CONVERSATION ABOUT RACE- Excerpt 3http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Wgrysv9Xa_Q&feature=related
A CONVERSATION ABOUT RACE - Excerpt 4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_NUGl2lZao&feature=related
The question has been asked: “What is the point of these stories anyhow”?
The average person is very gullible. If you tell them often enough that ‘racial categories must go,’ they will believe it.
Posted by Jim at 3:57 AM on December 16
I understand your post but what I was trying to say is that 150 years ago they would be clammering to be white. It has less to do with pride (although it plays a role) than advantage. White folks are being wrongly vilified and are losing power, so why would those with mixed-race blood lean that way?
The exceptions to this are rare.
Here is an interesting article on Obama’s politics:
“Why Obama’s Socialism Matters”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/why_obamas_socialism_matters_1.html
All you need to know is this:He is a anti-white mulatto(nonwite) bigot who was put into office by blacks and post-1965 non-whites. His intent is to reduce Native Born White Americans to an ever dwindling racial minority within the borders of America. Barack Obama is the mortal enemy of the majority Native Born White American population.
I DO NOT RECOGNIZE BARACK OBAMA AS AN AMERICAN. Nor do I recognize the millions of post-1965 non-whites as Americans.
Looks like the economy is in really bad shape. Hopefully it will collapse real soon. Maybe it already has. Reality will have a corrosive effect on the current consensus that many delusional White Republicans have bought into. And this will be be a very good thing.
The way I know Obama is Black is because if I were walking down the street one night and turned around and saw someone who looked him following me, I’d definitely cross to the other side of the street to protect my wallet and my life.
This guy has seemed to change his stripes so many times it almost makes me dizzy. We are in his hands now for at least four years so I hope that he might at least be so rudderless that the least social damage will be done. But I am afraid that this is a feeble hope as too many seem to worship him as some sort of demi-god.
I hope no one on AR is concerned about the status change in the One Drop Rule. Before the 60’s this rule was accepted because it kept anyone with a shred of black appearance from trying to ‘be white.’ Since the 60’s, it has morphed into a rule designed to guarantee affirmative action and ‘black pride’ for anyone who looks the least bit black.
Either way, the important point to remember is this: THE ONE DROP RULE WORKS IN OUR FAVOR!
It does this because it ensures that all mulattos, almost all quadroons, and most octaroons, continue to be classified as black. Slowly, this could up the white gene percentage of the American black genome from its current 20% to maybe as high as 30% or even 40%. But the benefit is that it works to maintain the black gene percentage of American whites at the 2% it has been for generations.
Likewise, we should never shed a tear for idiotic white women who have mulatto babies. By such action, they deserve to lose their 50,000 year genetic heritage.
The current fashion for ‘anti-racism’ is just that: a moral fashion. It will not last forever. First, because fashions change anyway, but more importantly, because genetic truth is on our side: race exists, race is important, and races have a right to exclusivity if that is what they wish. When the times comes that people again accept these simple, time-tested truths, it may be that the people who are 98% or more white live mainly in the Pacific Northwest and parts of Central Europe, and number only 100 million or less. But from that small number they will be able to rebuild. If we did not have the One Drop Rule, it could turn out that everyone we think of as white would be 40% non-white, not 2%. From that, we could never rebuild.
“Mix in a few centuries’ worth of Central, South and Native Americans, plus Asians, and untold millions of today’s U.S. citizens need a DNA test to decipher their true colors.”
The foggy estimate of “untold millions” notwithstanding (the piece elsewhere claims a mere two per cent), it’s nice to read an explicit acknowledgement of the genetic basis of race in an AP article. You have to wonder if this anonymous journalism major realizes what he’s conceded, but in any case there it is.
The last 45 years have taken their toll on the USA. Somewhere in the furor of trying to make everyone equal, we’ve become as a ship without a rudder. White people have become ashamed of being white because of the perceived harm that their predecessors had done to blacks. What was that harm, and why should those alive today have to pay for what their ancestors might have done? Why should citizens of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales feel guilty about British imperialism that brought much of Africa out of the Dark Ages? White citizens of the USA owe no other race anything at all, just as white citizens of Britain owe no other race anything at all. We are reminded daily of what a commendable job the Africans are doing in running the remnants of the countries from which they drove out the whites. Let them die on the vine, but keep the rest of them from migrating into the West. We don’t need them or want them.
Did the Founding Fathers of the USA want this nation to become the disgusting melting-pot that it has become? Insofar as their thinking that English might marry Scots who might marry Irish who might marry Norwegians who might then marry Germans (you get the point) - perhaps so - but not the flagrant miscegenation of present-day America. In short, I don’t believe they embraced the mixing of the white race with other races. I am certain they could not have foreseen the chaos the USA would be in about 230 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
When will whites open their eyes and see that what we are losing so quickly is indeed worth fighting for? May we even hope that they will open their eyes at all? What is happening to us? Where is the will to fight in the press, the legislatures, the courts, and if necessary in the streets and the fields? It amazes me that Scotland, a small country geographically, fought for many, many years to defend its “wee bit hill and glen” from invaders and those, who like Edward I of England, would have annexed Scotland to England. For centuries before the death of Alexander III, King of Scots, in 1286, and then again after 1314 when Robert the Bruce defeated an English army which outnumbered the Scots by more than three-to-one, Scotland enjoyed its independence until that abomination called the 1707 act of union in which many Scots were bought and sold by English gold of the supporters of the Hanoverian usurpers. Today, the Scots appear about as willing to hand over Scotland to muslims and other third-worlders as the English are willingly turning England into some unrecognizable muddle of its glorious past. Maybe the Scots started losing the national identity way back in 1707. What all of us whites need now is the same spirit of those 6,000 men who fought for Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314. We need to send the enemy packing toward home “tae think again” (source: “Flower of Scotland” by the Corries).
For God and Saint Andrew!!!
Beenheretoolong
Here is the mistake you are making:you have accepted the burden of trying to prove to post-1965 non-whites and their white supporters-leftists,liberals and worshippers of the corporation- that you and other Native Born White Americans are not racist. Place the racism burden immediately on post-1965 non-whites and their white supporters. WE are in a fight for OUR survival. WE have no time for the kind of nonesense that you want to participate in.
Even better announce that their is no debate. WE oppose being made into an ever dwindling racial minority within the borders of America. OUR intention is to completely shut down post-1965 immigration policy. Announce OUR intention to fight tooth and nail angainst OUR racial dispossession at the hands of post-1965 non-whites.
Obama is black enough for me. Hell, Bill Clinton was black enough. And judging by the triumphalism I see among New York City blacks concerning Obama’s ascendency to the throne, he’s apparently black enough for them too.
So I take it the black people who claim Obama is “black” are now okay with the old Jim Crow “one-drop rule”? Funny how that was decried as “racist” when white people were doing it.
The biggest advocate of the “one drop rule” today is the NAACP. It insists upon using that criterion in order to maximize the number of people considered to be black. If by using the one drop rule you can show that, say, 20% of the people in an area are black rather than 14%, you can then impose a 20% quota for blacks to be enforced by the affirmative action police.
“Today, the spectrum of skin tones among African-Americans—even those with two black parents—is evidence of widespread white ancestry.”
Hair texture and skull shape are much more accurate measures of race than skin tone.
Jupiter: What exactly is “nonsense” about my post of December 17? Other than a tendency to ramble too much about Scottish history - to use that history to illustrate a point, I was saying that if the Scots could fight like hell against the English to defend their country, why can’t White Americans do the same? I’m not attempting to prove to anyone else that those of us who were around before 1965 are not racist, least of all to those who came along after 1965. I don’t care what they think. I’m not exactly sure how you read that into my remarks, but then I don’t care about that either. I was saying that the day has arrived when we cannot negotiate with our enemies (i.e. blacks and hispanics among others) at some conference table. The day is fast approaching when we must fight like hell.
Barack Obama may well be anti-white, but I think one thing is for sure,and that is he won’t do much if not anything for black people. Mulatto people only claim to be pro black if it suits their needs. He got the majority black vote, and now that he will be America’s next president, he has no use for blacks except the ones in his high society amd arrogant circle. Blacks and half blacks forget where they come from when they get high on the ladder. Like the old say goes, “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Pray for BHO’s fall.
