Once upon a time, there were three men. They all lived in slightly different eras and all three achieved notable success in their chosen fields of specialization.
One of the men was/is white, the other Latino and the third one is African-American (black) with mixed parentage.
Of the three men, Elton Joh had the earliest secret which bothered him so much that he decided to do something about banishing it; on February 14 1984, he married a woman called Renate Blauel. To everyone’s consternation, the marriage lasted four years, following which Elton John revealed the “secret” that had been gnawing at him for years: he was happy to be a gay man. Those who could bother rolled their eyes and went back to living their lives. They had, after all, known that Elton John was gay well before he wed that … woman … and their only surprise was that the marriage had lasted as long as it did.
Sold thei world stale news: Ricky Martin, Elton John, Barack Obama
Almost 20 years later, a phenom by the name of Ricky Martin graced stages with waist and butt wiggles that had nubile girls swooning in the aisles when they were not wading in their juices on account of his … well … phenomenal pelvic thrusts. The stadium cleaners shrugged their shoulders after Martin’s shows and gamely mopped up the fans’ hormonal fluids. Martin made a lot of money being a sex symbol even though he had just two songs in his repertoire.
Ricky Martin, like Elton John had a secret. It ate away at him, zapped his creative artistry until one day in March 2010 he decided to give up the ghost. He confirmed that he was, had always been gay. A few eyebrows were raised and then everyone went back to their business. This wasn’t really such fresh news after all, was it, even his erstwhile dyed in the wool fans reasoned.
The third man is Barack Obama. Beating the odds for a black man, and a first term senator, Barack Obama run for the highest political office in the United States and won handily. But Barack Obama had a secret. He was a liberal senator from Illinois, a black one at that, and he cared, truly cared for those less fortunate than himself. Not only that, Obama had another secret; he was a thoughtful man who understood fairness and commonsense even when the political odds were seemingly stacked against both.
So, Barack Obama pushed for the Affordable Care Act and … got it. He then refused to enforce the ridiculous Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) policy of the United States military even as his opponents demanded shrilly that he protects American forces from the homosexuals already serving honorably. DADT was finally repealed on Obama’s watch and Obama didn’t lose any sleep over the reversal of what had been, for all intents and purpose, a blight on America’s collective conscience.
But Obama still had another secret; his mind was “evolving” over gay marriage. Finally, in a blaze of publicity, Barack Obama told the world, that, with wise counsel from his daughters, he had come round to the view that homosexuals deserved to marry if they so wished. The headline writers went into a frenzy.
A few days later, the same writers are asking themselves openly: hang on, was this really newsworthy? Were we really surprised by the “announcement?’
Any sensible journalist, commentator now realizes that they were foolish for working themselves into a lather over the Obama pro-gay marriage announcement. They had known all along what his thoughts on it were.
Like Elton John and Ricky Martin before him, Barack Obama announced very stale news May 12, 2012. Like the two men before him, Obama will reap big from managing to excite the world about something they already knew.
Talk about selling snow to the Eskimos.
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First, Obama is not black. He’s as much white as he is black. He’s mixed, biracial or mulatto but not black. Second, Obama is not an African American. African Americans are the descendants of African brought to America and enslaved. The term was chosen because, although it is known that black/African Americans are of west and south-west African descent (as far north as Senegal and as far south as Angola with perhaps 5% from Mozambique in east Africa) because of the intervention of slavery, it is not known where a particular black/African American’s roots are from.
Obama’s father was a black man from Kenya and his mother was a white American of primarily Irish descent. Accordingly, Obama is Kenyan-Irish American or Irish-Kenyan American but not African American. An American of Nigerian descent is a Nigerian American. An American of Ugandan descent is a Ugandan American. Neither is an African American.
This calling anyone with a “drop” of black blood black is racist. It’s due to the racist belief that black blood taints the rest requiring all to be thrown out. It is patently racist. I request racism in all its forms and permutations so I reject this racist “one drop” theory.
In terms of his decision on same-sex marriage, I hope that it doesn’t hurt him electorally (particularly with the electoral college).. I like his stance on same-sex marriage and I like his being president much more than George W. Bush and I dred Romney as president. (R. Money, “Multiple-Choice” Mitt or “Myth” Romney) In my more cynical thoughts, I have wished that he’d come out for same-sex marriage in mid-November. The elections are in early November. I hope that his same-sex marriage stance does’t cost him the election and leave me with Romney. I suspect that his political advisers and consultants have looked at the issue of same-sex marriage from every political every angle before he did so but I’m still skittish. I will wait and see what the polls shows in a week or two.
I think you have just confirmed that Obama is black, Dean. Re-read what you posted.
I did re-read it sir and I stick to my thoughts. I like Obama–not because he’s black or white or yellow or green or any other color/race/ethnicity but because he’s done about as good a job as president as could be when faced with what he inherited and the Congress (both Democratic and Republican that he had). And I like him because the alternative is not desirable.
I strongly believe that the “one-drop” theory is racist and I reject it for that reason. I also believe that it’s silly to say “Want more oil, just add water.” At some point the you just have watery oil that will ruin your engine. And if you go further in adding water, you’ll have oily water that still not fit to drink.
I’m an African American and I feel an affinity to my cousins on the Continent of Africa but they or those who come to America and even those born of them in America are not African Americans–that’s my “tribe”.
Black people are not pollutants.
Now, I must admit I don’t quite understand where this is coming from. Pollutants? Who is a pollutant?
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The theory of the “one-drop” theory in the USA that labels someone as black if they have “one-drop” or a discernable portion of African/black heritage/blood is that African/black blood/heritage is a pollutant. If you have a big meal of good food and you grind up a fly and spread it around the food, common sense says that you throw away the entire big meal because it has been tainted or spoiled or polluted by that bits of fly that now are interspersed in it.. The same thoughts are behind the “one-drop” theory. Under that racist (racism if the belief that one race is inferior or superior to another) theory, the African/black blood/heritage is the pollutant (the fly) and the other blood/heritage is the food. Under that theory, the whole food/person must be thrown away and has been spoiled and the garbage is essentially the African/black.. I’m an African American. I’m proud of being of African/black descent and I will not subscribe to such a racist theory that says that my heritage/blood/descent is tainting or polluting. I hope that I have made it clear for you, Mr. Sebaspace.
Now, Dean, Obama has it on record that he is African American, includling on his voting register and when he completed the last census. I think that should really be it, don’t you?
Of course not. A race or ethnic group is not a club. You just can’t join the one that you want–which is what Obama apparently wants to do (and I have spoken to some Kenyans in the US about Obama).. The Buganda is an ethnic group in Uganda. Do they hand out membership applications? I think not. Since President Obama is of Kenyan descent–I believe of the Luo ethnic group, he’s much closer to being Buganda than any African American will every be (unless,of course, that African American has distant or recent east African or even Buganda heritage, which is certainly possible and probably exists). That being the case, as stated, African Americans are the descendants of the slaves brought to America. I am an African American. Obama is a Kenyan-Irish American or an Irish-Kenyan American.
Obama indicated his race/ethnicity on the US Census form. You spend so much time bouncing back and forth from Uganda to the US (and since you are apparently not yet–if ever–a US citizen) that you didn’t realize that ethnicity/race is not indicated on voter registration forms. In any case, US Census forms allow people to self-select whatever they want for race/ethnicity. And no one questions what anyone selects.
The fact remains that I know that Obama is not an African American. I know that he is not black (well, he’s part black) but I also know that those things don’t matter to me. What matters to me is the job that he’s doing as US President. I think that he’s doing a good job and I voted for him in 2008 and I’ll vote for him again in 2012. I’d vote for him over Romney any day.
But you see, some might argue that you, too, are not African American. You are just a black American. You were not born in Africa, your parents likely were also born in America – so what part of you makes you African? Only a first generation African born in America, or naturalized as an American, could justifiably call himself African-American.
But we accept it when you refer to yourself as African American even if we know it is a stretch for someone who is not even a third generation African to use that tag. Why? It is how you want to be seen: as an American with roots, however, tenuous, from Africa.
You apparently missed this definition of the term “African American”, which I discussed in my first paragraph above: “African Americans are the descendants of African brought to America and enslaved. The term was chosen because, although it is known that black/African Americans are of west and south-west African descent (as far north as Senegal and as far south as Angola with perhaps 5% from Mozambique in east Africa) because of the intervention of slavery, it is not known where a particular black/African American’s roots are from.”
By that definition, which is the accurate definition, I am an African American and Obama is not and recent immigrants from African and their descendants would not be (unless they mix genetically with “African Americans”–which is common). As discussed above, a first, second, third, etc. generation from Nigeria, Senegal, Angola, Uganda, Kenya is a Nigerian American, Senegalese American, Angolan American, Ugandan American or Kenyan American, etc. and not an African American. (And I don’t care if a hyphen is used or not with the terms.) And this makes sense since the history of African Americans is distinct from those other people of African heritage,although we are all black and we are all of African descent and they are my cousins and the cousins of African Americans.. It is not just how I want to be seen. It is a description of the truth. My ancestors were Africans who were brought to America and enslaved. And, again, that description is part of the definition.
With regard to the “tenuous” nature of my roots in Africa. My roots in Africa are real, definite and substantial. Although they are distant in time, they are not tenuous. Due to the incidence/intervention of chattel slavery, my African roots are to a large degree untraceable. They are, however, scientifically ascertainable by DNA testing. And, frankly, I tell people that I don’t need a paper trail to tell that my roots are in Africa because you can “see it on my face”. That is, my facial features–nose, lips, skin color, etc.–mark me as a “son” of Africa.
I must admit I am puzzled about why this is exercising you so. If you say you are African American, you are African American. If Barack Obama says he is black, he is black. As things stands Obama has a stronger claim to being African American than you do since his father was a first generation Kenyan.
But it really doesn’t matter that you both see yourselves as African Americans since the tag gives you the identity you want which is black men with their roots in Africa. So, to nitpick the definitions is exactly that … nitpicking.
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