Barack Obama

[flip_flop]

.......is not black. He never has been black and he never will be black.

He has one white parent and one black parent and is therefore of mixed race.

Why, therefore, are people continually refering to him as black?

[figure]

So what colour is a person who has one black and one white parent?

[flip_flop]

He is of mixed race. I don't know what the fashionable word is this week for people of mixed race I'm afraid, so am happy to be educated in this respect.

Whatever colour he is, it is not black.

[figure]

Mixing different proportions of black and white together results in various shades of grey. What are his chances then of being called grey? ;-)

[R1Man]

On that basis mate there are no blacks in the US at all!

[Zen]

Mulatto.

[fagidill]

Well He Sure Ain't "WHITE" !!

[Clanad]

Or should your statement more properly be "... He's not black enough?
A more politically correct term could be person of color, but, disregarding his politics, Mr. Obama has chosen to live his life as a black... black father who was a native of Kenya, married a black woman and has always associated hinself with the black community... come to think about it, what is your problem?

[Gromit]

He is unlikely to become President, so all you right whingers can stop this 'He isn't black, anyway' nonsense.

[fagidill]

In The USA , He Will Be Refered To As AFRICAN AMERICAN

[Buenchico]

I attended an in-service course for teachers, run by two gentlemen of Afro-Caribbean descent, in Sheffield back in the late 1980s. When I asked the course leaders for an acceptable term to use collectively for all people who were not descended exclusively from many generations of white parentage, I was told that the only acceptable word was 'black'. I asked whether this applied to those 'of mixed race' and I was told forcefully that I must refer to them as 'black'. I pointed out that I required a term which also included people of Asian descent (including those from both India and China). Once again, I was told (very forcefully) that I should only refer to them as 'black'!

I mentioned this to one of my pupils, whose family ran the local Chinese takeaway. Her reply expressed my own feelings perfectly, even though it used a few words which wouldn't normally have been acceptable in my classroom ;-)

Sometimes simply using the definite article can change the perceived meaning of a word. One of my extremely able (and usually articulate) 6th form students said 'I stay away from Firth Park. It's full of blacks. I can't stand them'. This apparently racist comment came as a shock to me as the student who uttered it was of African descent, with the darkest skin possible. When I asked her about it she explained "I might be black but I'm not a black".

Chris

[flip_flop]

My 'problem' clanad is simply that it irritates me. People who hold their knife like a pen irritate me. We had people round for dinner on Saturday night and one of the guests held her fork in her fist (the way you would hide a coin in your fist) and I don't know how I stopped myself from attacking her with the trifle.

It is simply one of those things that irritate me - we ALL, without exception, have them.

[chazza]

He probably refers to himself as black, which is why everyone else does.
A friend of mine worked for Camp America one summer and they had to take details of all the children, one of which was "race". One girl, who appeared to be white to the adults there, had her details entered as "black" so she had to be recorded as this. The child had one mixed race parent and one white parent, but was regarded as black within her family

[Hermia]

chazza - I've kind of had the opposite experience. My dad is half-Indian and my mum is white, but I have turned out white. People occasionally ask me if I have any Spanish/Italian blood, but that is it. I totally see myself as white, whereas my cousins who are the same mixture but are much darker see themselves as Asian. Partly this is because that is how people see me - my Indians relatives see me as the freak of the family and Asians don't tend to see me as being 'one of them' (which they do with my cousins). It just seems farcical for me to describe myself as anything other than white!

[anotheoldgit]

Seeing that he was brought up all his life by his White mother, wasn't calling himself Black a slur by him, on his Mother, since she had cast off her Black husband years previously?

[Le Chat]

So it seems that unless you appear to be white, even if you are technically not, then you are labelled 'white', whereas even if you only have a jot of black in you but it is visually apparant, you are labelled 'black.'
So it's a case of 'say what you see!'

[Bazile]

Incidentally , Black and white , are not colours - but rather, shades

[admarlow]

in truth he is equally white as he is black but since hilliary clinton gets the woman vote he is gunning for he black vote, what next, a wheelchair, or maybe blunckett will pop up (I don't thik they are ready for gays yet though)