It's Official - Obama is black

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He only checked "black" on his Census form.

I find this a bit strange - I mean, while I do not doubt that he connects more with his black heritage than his white heritage, his mother was white. Since there's nothing on the census form that says you cannot check off more than one box if you're bi-racial, I find this somewhat surprising.

 

Most people would probably say that Obama look more black than white.

What I really find surprising is the fact that the census takes race into account and makes such a big thing about it... I dislike the very idea of race or racial identity and I certainly wouldn't answer any question that asked me to tick a box for race (we don't have such questions in the census over here and that is a good thing IMO).

 

Who cares!?! How is this news?

 

At an overall level this type of information is probably good to have. It's necessary if you want to try and get a feel for any structural problems that certain groups may have. If some groups can be shown to have problems than this is something that should be addressed.

 

Such information can also be used to segregate people or enforce affirmative action programs. Using race as a criterion is probably misleading (to say the least), social factors matter and are more objective. No offense but you seem to imply that everyone who shares the same racial background should have the same problems... I disagree, there are other factors. The only problem they may share is the fact that they may suffer from racism because they are in the minority and that it may make it harder for them to find a job or an accommodation. Is this what you mean by "structural problems"?

In any case I'm very wary of people being labelled as belonging to a particular ethnic or racial group when we all belong to the human race.

 

I believe he did not want to diminish the historical importance of his presidency. As the first black president, I think he wanted to emphasize that aspect of his heritage. Many of us knew we were making history when we cast our votes for him. All of us shared that historical moment, regardless of our race. I even saved my email, which was sent to millions of his supporters on election night:

I still remember arguing on this forum, at that moment, with people who did not understand what it took to get to that moment in history. Some will never get it, because they don't see how "the whole race thing" matters in the least. It does, you just have to be a part of the process in this country to understand. It's a big damn deal.

 

Pretty much. If we're all part of the human race and black people find it far harder to get a job or accomodation then that surely means something has gone wrong in our society somewhere. It's not good enough to look at these things anecdotally, we need hard figures so that we can understand the extent of the problem and where it is. Cross referencing to other information for common factors would also be important. I presume this census is nationwide and individuals can't be identified.

Not that I'm suggesting that these problems will be solved just by giving these people jobs or houses. It's probably a long term thing focusing on giving education and opportunities to the next generation. Cross referencing to other social factors would probably see other ethnic groups benefit as well, just not as much proportionately.

 

Are you applying this methodology to your own country, or to this one? Obama's? I ask this only because "race" is not really an objective issue here. For instance, Barack may have been black but his detractors went straight for the "Hussein" in his full name to smear him on the issue of race.

 

As Chandos has said, since Obama is widely recognized as the first black president, I don't know why he would check any other box. And can you imagine the headlines if he had checked the "white" box?

 

As I understand it you are considered black in the US if you have pretty much any drop of black blood. For instance considers Mariah Carey herself black. Very few "pure" blacks in the US. By that reckoning Obama is blacker than most as he is 50% black while I think the percentage is lower for most other African-americans.

As for why it matters, well obviously it does but I still think it is fairly unpleasant that you are required to check a race box on US forms. There are no human races, it is a social construct. There are ethnicities but they merge into each other so much that I doubt it is possible to clearly state where one ends and another begin. It is a very arbitrary system of viewing people.

 

See, being black (or having the appearance of belonging to a minority) is not the real problem, the real problem is racism.

As long as people will look at you differently because you're not "white" or "not white enough" there will be a problem.

People point at race/ethnicity and say that it is the problem or that people who belong to minorities should be treated differently (whether in a good or in a bad way).

People look different depending on their origins but everybody (except perfect twins) looks different. Difference is in and by itself a good thing.

Hopefully, people will start to look at "races" differently and mix more so that in the future it will be impossible for anyone to claim to belong to just one ethnic or racial group.

I think that Joacqin makes some very good points. It is indeed arbitrary.

Of course it is an American thing and it may be hard for us Europeans to understand why racial identity matters so much to Americans. It may have a thing to do with the fact that slavery and racial segregation play a large part in American history and the fact that America may not have come to terms with its past yet (I may be stating the obvious here).

I for one was really thrilled when Obama was elected because it meant that Americans could look further than the "racial" issue and were able to elect a black president and that was indeed a moment of historical significance.

Another way to look at it is to ask whether Obama was elected because he was (or looked) black or because of his political program and personal charisma?

I'd assume that being black in America made it harder for him to be elected (and the "Hussein" part that Chandos mentioned certainly did not help). Looking at the big picture it was probably the result of the Democrat candidate representing a much needed change in politics.

That is a very good point but if I understand what Aldeth meant, he was asking why Obama did not tick both boxes instead. In other words, why did he side with the black minority which of course is very logical if we follow Chandos' argument.

 

You have to give McCain a lot of credit.

 

Obama was able to get elected based on his skills and charisma -- I have no doubt of that. All things considered, were I an American, I would likely have voted for the guy because I like his policies and style.

However, I'm the type of guy who puts a little bit of effort into finding out about the issues and the candidates. I know that not all voters are like that. There is no denying that a great many people vote purely on ideological lines or, in this case, on racial lines. I think it's a pretty good guess that Obama got over 90% of the Black vote, and it's also a pretty good guess that he got a lot of the "white guilt" vote from the sorts of people who still feel responsible for stuff that happened over 50 years ago even though they weren't even born at the time.

In other words, one (but not the only) reason Obama was elected was because he has Black blood. It's not PC to say it but it's true nonetheless.

So it's no surprise he considers himself black. It's part of his electability.

 

Obama was elected despite the fact that he is black. It was an early X-Mas present from GWB and his failed adminstration, that a black, sort of "liberal" became president. If your point is that there were other factors, besides race -- definitely agreed. If your point is that he was elected because he was black, then you are not that familiar with our history (which I don't think was your point). But I'm sure if Colin Powell ran against Obama the same people, like Rush, would be saying "Obama won because he was black!" Whites voted for him because they feel guilty! They are all racists!. Oh, wait, didn't Rush and Cheney throw Colin Powell out of the Republican party? Why yes, yes, they did. And for being "a racist," or something? Because he voted for the black guy?

 

I thought he had red blood?

I don't think either "despite the fact he is black" or "because of" is entirely correct. First and foremost I would say he was a very charismatic and likable candidate (which is rare), he had great credentials although was bit short in experience (which Palin effectively negated in a brilliant move by the Republicans). Obama won the democratic nomination because he had more money than Clinton. He absolutely destroyed her in funding (and he was a more likable candidate, she made a couple of gaffs that hurt her integrity).

Both Obama and Clinton did a wonderful job of getting people to the polls who rarely vote -- that carried over to the main election and favored Obama (and would have given Clinton a boost as well). Reaching out to a new demographic was one of the biggest factor in the election.

Obama won the presidential election because he was 'the anti-Bush' whereas McCain could not throw the mantle of Bush far enough away to dampen the fears of moderates. That and really poor campaign strategy by the McCain camp -- Nixon famously stated (I'm paraphrasing) 'cater to the core party members during the primaries, but cater to the moderates during the election.' Obama did a wonderful job of catering to the moderates while McCain was still focused on the right.

 

I would argue that McCain probably knew that he didn't have a hope in hell of getting many moderate votes so he decided to focus on the core and hope he got a good turnout from them. Didn't work, did it?

I don't believe for one second that Obama was elected only because he was black. To say something like that demeans a really good man. But what I do believe is that his being black got him a lot of votes. What got him more votes was his vision and charisma -- and that fact that he wasn't Bush, as T2Bruno so eloquently stated.

 

I don't agree. I think it cost him votes. Blacks vote democratic anyway, regardless of race. When was the last time Republicans got the majority of black votes? Now if Colin Powell had run against, say John Kerry, that would be interesting to see how many blacks would crossover to the Republican side because of race. But even then Colin, is still a very moderate Republican:

 

Yeah, but as I mentioned before, it wasn't only blacks voting for him because he was black. I would guess that a fair number of Caucasian swing voters went with Obama because they were afraid that if they didn't, it would make them closet racists. That's nonsense, of course, but I believe many people think that way.

None of this insinuates that he doesn't belong where he is. I feel he's done an excellent job under the circumstances. He couldn't do as much as some liberals would have wanted, but politics is a difficult, convoluted theatre of human activity.

Case in point, Obama managed to pass health care through both the Senate and the House of Reps because the Democrats have majorities in both houses, correct? Yet passing the law, with a majority of elected representatives, has been twisted by some real whackadoos into being "a totalitarian, fascist undermining of democracy" -- makes me ashamed to be a conservative when I see my so-called brethren saying silliness like that.

But that's immaterial, because from what I am hearing, because of that bill and the spin being put on it, the Republicans have a chance of taking back one or both of the legislative houses in the 2010 elections. If that's true, all I have to say is WTF?

 

Either party always has a chance of taking back both houses, because mid-terms are a type of report card on the current state of the nation, which at the moment, is still not very good. But David Frum has it exactly right: The Democrats were willing to pay the price for reform, just like they did for Medicare. The Dems paid the price in the latter years of the Sixties for some very powerful pieces of legislation they passed in the early-mid 60s. Hell, they even lost the South over Civil Rights. But today both of those policies have been successful and have redefined national politics, long after both parties have lost and regained power in Congress several times. Dems are willing to take the short-term hit, because generations from now everyone will have access to health care.

 

I think this fraction of voters was outnumbered by the in-your-face racists who would never vote for a black man.