Obamessiah continues to vote "present"...

This is what happens when you elect a community organizer to POTUS just because he is black and a slick speaker.

He is as much white as he is black. So why do you focus on his blackness? Is black a superior racial trait?

Oh no, Ziggy.....I beg to differ.

Barack Obama chose what race to be. His wife has made his race crystal clear to anyone and everyone willing to listen to what she says, or read what she writes. Other choices he has made in his adult life have made this clear as well. A good example of this is preacher he selected as a spiritual advisor and confidant for so many years.

ziggy wrote:He is as much white as he is black. So why do you focus on his blackness? Is black a superior racial trait?

In addition to the points Stephanie made, African American is also how Barrack Obama SELF identifies and it also a trait that he very publicly touted during two years of campaigning and has been a very public focus point by the media.

He is the one that intimated race in the campaign so yes, it is a legitimate topic of discussion regarding his election and it does raise a very legitimate question as to whether he would have been elected were he white, especially given his views mirror those of both Al Gore and John Kerry, both liberals rejected by the American voting public.

But again, regardless of the political hype, Obama is no more black than he is white. And if we allow that he is just "black" (or just "white"), then we are perpetuating the illusion / delusion.

I think some of us have fallen for the old racist tripe that if one has any discernably black genetic heritage, then he or she is "black", or a "negro", or a "nig-er"- or whatever the word is this year or was yesteryear.

We should not let Obama get by with it, nor should we not let each other get by with it without challenge.

As to the term "African-American", Obama, with a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, is about as African-American as one could possibly be.

Questioning the motives of voters is not racist when it is he who brought race into the equation.

Aaron wrote:Questioning the motives of voters is not racist when it is he who brought race into the equation.

How many voters do you think voted for Obama because they percieved him as more black than white?

Conversally, how many voters voted AGAINST Obama because they percieved him as "black"?

7 and 19.

Aaron wrote:7 and 19.

Close enough, I guess.

Ziggy,

I haven't "fallen" for anything. Barack Obama is a black man. I know this because not only does he say he is, but because of the choices he has made in his life. I don't see anything wrong with that. He is who and what he decided to be. That is his decision to make not yours or mine or anyone other than Barack Obama.

Stephanie wrote:Ziggy,

I haven't "fallen" for anything. Barack Obama is a black man. I know this because not only does he say he is, but because of the choices he has made in his life. I don't see anything wrong with that. He is who and what he decided to be. That is his decision to make not yours or mine or anyone other than Barack Obama.

I disagree.

His mother was white, which makes him half white- neither Obama's nor Keli's nor your nor anyone else's political spin notwithstanding.

Ziggy,

It isn't political spin. His mother was white and white people raised him. For whatever reason he made the decision to reject the white community. He did it with his choice of church. He did this with his choice of wife, and I say that not because Michelle Obama is black, I say this because Michelle Obama is a very racist individual as she has proven in both her speeches and her writings.

None of that makes him any less white.

Ziggy,

The only reason I can figure you would say such a thing is because you view race strictly as a genetic issue. To me, genetics is only a small part. To me it is much more of a cultural issue.

Did you ever see the movie The Godfather? Hasn't just about everyone over the age of 15? I'm sure you have and it provides an excellent illustration of what I mean.

Tom Hayden was born to Irish parents, but taken in by the Corleone family. He became Italian. He accepted that culture and became part of it and identified with the people of that culture. He ate Italian, spoke Italian, and thought Italian. He ceased being Irish.

Barack Obama has chosen to do the same thing. He turned his back on his white heritage and the culture of white Americans in favor of the culture of black Americans. So genetically he may be half white, but he has chosen to live his life as a black man and so he is a black man.

I don't know why that bothers you. It doesn't bother me a bit.

So then, to paraphrase Keli, race is what one does, and not what one is?

Did you likewise join the chorus of those who said that Bill Clinton was the "first black president"?

I know you're not that dense, Ziggy.

Barack Obama is who he chose to be.

Perhaps Bill Clinton was our first black president. It may explain a thing or two. For example, if Bill Clinton is actually a black man he may have been raised in a household and community who isn't fluent in English, speaking ebonics instead. Now if that's the case it may just explain how it could be a man could be elected President of the Unites States of America yet not know what the definition of the word "is" is.