I've heard Obama being referred to as an African American...that makes at least a little sense. But more often than not, he is given the epithet 'Black'. He's the first viable 'Black' candidate they say. But honestly, why is Obama Black?
The man's mother is a lily-white woman from Kansas, his father is a Black African from Kenya...doesn't that make him half-black and half-white?
Of course, I know the historical reasons for this. The one-drop rule in America means that if a person has even one person of African origin in his ancestry, it makes him Black. But you'd think that a hundred and fifty years after abolition and reconstruction, fifty odd years after Brown vs. Board of Education, the one-drop rule would be archaic and defunct. Not so.
It seems that we are still incapable of thinking beyond race; that culturally America is still incapable of thinking outside of pigeon-hole definitions.
Instead of claiming that Obama could be the first Black candidate, won't we accomplish more by celebrating the possibility of true multiculturalism and multi-racial diversity in the next White House?
4 comments:
i think of race as more about how the world sees you than what your ancestry actually is. if obama isn't black, neither am i, and neither are most black people in america since the majority of us are a significant percentage european-descended. his white mother doesn't change the fact that he's black in america. he's just another mixed-ethnicity black person like all the rest of us.
what's even more interesting is that in africa, people his color are considered white. and besides, we all know race is not a biological construct :-)
Great point Jillian. But often I feel that in America 'white' is considered the default or base-line race. And that everything else is regarded as being different in terms of this default whiteness? Though how being white is defined is another complex issue altogether.
Great Post!
and i guess not just in the US but in most other countries on this planet earth white is the dafault colour!and it s even more funny/interesting that its the learned and the educated who keeps this distinctio of being black/white which totally brings down the main aim/principle behind acquiring education...
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anyways, first tiime here...and came here by blog hopping, when i read ur name i was, like "whaaaaaat" :D!i guess ur the same person who used to write to Youngtimes and save the tiger campgain and the postscripts....right? i am a longtime YTer too :)!remember seeing ur name,and reading ur articles!if u arent that same person, sorry for everything typed above :)!
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That makes a long comment! :D!
Takecare!!
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Good words.
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