Biracial = Black?
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James Joyner | Monday, June 23, 2008 |
One of the oddities of this election cycle is that, with all the focus on Barack Obama’s race, he’s almost invariably referred to as “black” or “African-American” despite having a white mother. The same phenomenon is true pretty much across the board, from Tiger Woods to Halle Barry. Biracial or multiracial people, regardless of hue or other characteristics, are seen and seem to see themselves as black.
Woods briefly fought back against this trend, telling Oprah Winfrey and her audience that he was actually “Cablinasian,” owing to his complicated ancestry. (His father, the late Colonel Earl Woods, was half black, a quarter Chinese and a quarter American Indian. His mother, Kultida, is half Thai, a quarter Chinese, and a quarter Dutch.) Nobody bought it and he’s still considered “black.”
Is this a vestige of the old “one drop of black blood” nonsense? A function of our identifying race through visual characteristics and the dominance of African traits? That Americans think anyone not what is therefore “black”? Or what?
UPDATE: In related news, South Africa’s high court ruled last week that the country’s 20,000 citizens of Chinese descent will henceforth be considered legally “black.”
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Biracial = Black?
Should be "Not White == Black", and it's not a new phenomena in cultural identities created by white people.
There's also the flip side of the coin
Biracial = Not really Black
Hence all that talk about "Is Obama Black Enough?"
Biracial = Not really Black
Hence all that talk about "Is Obama Black Enough?"
How many non-white people were actually saying that?
...despite having a white mother.
Not to mention that he is related to Dick Cheney!
Obama himself has embraced his black-itude. He went to that church for 20 years to build up his cred with black folks in the South Side. He's married to a black woman. He got Oprah to campaign for him.
Quite frankly, if he was 0% black and 100% anything else, Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic Party's nominee.
He's black, he knows he's black, he self-identifies as black, and he's counting on his blackness helping him to get votes.
I think that defines him as black, more accurately than any numbers game we can play with percentages.
The interesting thing about Obama's background is the thought his African forebares could have sold ancestors of his constituents into slavery. Wonder how that sits with the African/American community? Better yet, has anyone ever investigated the possiblility?
Read his first book. His reconciliation of his roots and his choice to self-identify as not just a black, but an African-American, is a major theme. It's one of the subjects, frankly, on which I have no fault to find with Barack Obama.
I have faith in the American electorate that superficiality won't play a part and that Barack Obama will not receive votes solely based on his skin color.
Quite frankly, if he was 0% black and 100% anything else, Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic Party's nominee.
Based on the phenomenal success black candidates have had in gaining presidential nominations in the past? Just because Ferraro says black politicians have an easier time getting elected than white men or women doesn't mean its true ... Hillary Clinton is not the democratic party's nominee because she ran a horrible race, running as the establishment candidate at a time people were looking for change, and with no contingency plans for the race continuing after Super Tuesday.
I don't like a lot of what Obama says, but its hard to argue against his statement that being a black politician named Barak Hussein Obama isn't an advantage in US elections, nor is it a disadvantage. The people who will automatically vote for him because he's black more or less cancel out those who will automatically vote against him because he's black.
I guess Obama would rather be judged by the color of his skin, rather than the content of his character??
In his case that may be a good choice!
When are we going to get to the point where we don't give a rat's patootie about anyone's race? Frankly, I'm getting pretty sick of all this race-identification.
When are we going to get to the point where we don't give a rat's patootie about anyone's race?
When we find something that is more different than us than we are to each other.
Obama is black? All I see is liberal.
Tiger is black? All I see is golfer.
Halle Berry is black? I better not say what I'm looking at.
Boyd;
Probably only when "Rat's patooties" reach $135 on the futures market??
Perhaps it's merely because his skin colour is darker than that of most of his fellow Americans.
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